Black Cats are Bad Luck Y'know
by GallifreyGryffindorGirl
Summary: Faythe is seen as an abomination in the eyes of angels, an asset to Demons, and human hunters usually just want to kill her so when she is asked to help Sam and Dean stop the breaking of the 66 seals you can understand she's a little wary, but her attitude soon has her friendly with the boys. If only the same could be said for her frenemy Castiel Fluff alert & possible smut later
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

The circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are. How strange it seemed that these words of wisdom came from an animated Pokémon movie and not from the mouths of real people.

Faythe was specifically bred with the purpose of being a prolific killing machine by the standards of both angel and demon alike yet with none of the weakness either group had and still retaining a human body. She had of course no choice in this matter seeing as she had not even been conceived at the point when some angel – a lower level guy by the name of Logan– came up with this idea, and by the point she was conceived it was already too late.

Apparently – Faythe learned later on – Logan had been overly invested with humans, or at least the few humans who called themselves 'hunters' and fought against the shadowy creatures that lurked in the dark corners of their lives. Logan was, among angels, an experimentalist. Other angels avoided him apparently, branded him insane. Faythe was inclined to agree completely.

Her mother, Rachel, had not been a devout woman nor had she been completely unholy. She was a hunter herself, but one who had settled down in a particular city and hunted things there around a day job. On Sundays she went to church and before bed she would pray. Maybe this was why Logan chose her.

He didn't come out and say what he was when he first approached Rachel. He waited until the third date – _classy_ – before he told her he was an angel. Of course Rachel was sceptic right up until Logan preformed a not so minor miracle. He killed her cat, then brought it back. What on earth possessed Rachel to work with the angel who killed her cat (even if he brought it back) was beyond Faythe's comprehension. Either way she listened to Logan's proposal to create the ultimate weapon.

He got Rachel pregnant with a Nephilim, the off spring of an angel and a human.

But that wasn't the end of Logan's plan. Finding a demon was easy. Trapping a demon in their meat-suit was easy. Draining the demon of some of its blood every day for nine months was a little difficult, and once or twice Logan got frustrated and ended up killing the demon and had to replace it. Having Rachel drink demon blood every day while she was pregnant? That was as easily as simply explaining to Rachel what he sought of the child growing in her womb and she was having a glass of blood every day. After a week she was already an addict anyway, not that the angel had told her of the addictive side effects before serving it up to her as a beverage.

For nine months Logan visited Rachel and no one in heaven, not one of the other angels, seemed to notice what he was doing. Like previously stated they ignored him, he was insane.

And then the pregnancy went on longer than either Logan or Rachel expected. A month and half overdue Rachel resolved – without Logan's consent – to have the birth induced. The next time Logan visited her she was a mother resting in hospital with a new-born by her bed. Even induced the birth had been a laboured affair and took almost seventy hours. Rachel was exhausted.

Logan was disappointed. He peered into the cot beside her bed and the baby stared back up. The angel thought it kind of looked like a hairless ape, but then that was kind of what humans where, and the child was nothing of what he'd expected. He'd expected strength, power. What he got was 6lb 2oz of wrinkled pink skin that stared up at him with such dark brown eyes they nearly looked black. He couldn't even feel any power coming from the child. _Perhaps he had been wrong_ , Logan thought as he and the child stared at one another, _perhaps the combination of angel and demon DNA in a human child was not enough to imbue it with the power of both races… perhaps all it had done was cancel out any of the DNA and leave it simply a human with nothing special about it at all…_

Logan was still standing in the hospital room when two more angels entered. He didn't need to turn around to know they were there. He sensed them, and the flickering lights would have been quite the clue if not. Logan smiled to himself. "Did you follow me, or where you sent?" he asked as he turned away from the child and took a step towards the two angels.

Neither of them answered him, but Logan shrugged nonchalantly anyway. "It does not matter none. My experiment has failed, the child is nothing."

The angels stood stoically, the one using a Doctor as his vessel spoke "Logan what you tried to create is an abomination."

"No, don't you see?" Logan scowled "if the experiment had been successful this child would have been the start of something _new_. A race of soldiers without the vulnerabilities of an angel or a demon and yet the powers of both…"

The two angels continued to stare. Logan deflated a bit and nodded at them. "My experiment is a failure, and if I am to be killed for this I only hope that you can understand why I tried…"

"We understand" the angel using a patient as a vessel said "but that doesn't make it right Logan. Come away from the child Logan, it is time you answered for your crimes."

Logan did not argue, did not even try to stay behind with his child nor for Rachel. He had not cared for either, only from what they could give him. He did however as his captors if he could have a moment with Rachel and though they did not give him a moment alone they did allow him to go over to the unconscious Rachel and in a show of uncanny gentleness he smoothed back a piece of her hair and pressed a kiss to her temple. The angels didn't know he had implanted a thought on the woman, nor did they see him slip something under her pillow.

When Rachel woke hours later she knew nothing of what had transpired in her room over the crib of her new born. She'd had the strangest dream about her angel though, that he had left a gift to protect their child… Rachel found the angel blade under her pillow and it set a seed of unease in her stomach. Still it was only once her child was six months old and she had seen hide nor hair of Logan that she realised she was alone to raise her child. A child that to her was quite obviously not human.

For six months she resisted naming her child, wanting Logan's input, but when he did not returned she chose what she considered an appropriate name. Because she had faith in her child being everything Logan dreamed it would be.

She named her daughter Faythe.

When the child was seven months old the angels realised that Logan's experiment had indeed worked. This child was showing remarkable abilities common amongst both angel and demons. Angel's watched as the mother tested the infant, they watched as she tried devils traps and angel banishing sigil's, holy water and salt. There was no effect on the child, besides some lethargy and a skin rash from salt.

It was decided that the child could become too powerful if she reached adult hood, and angels where sent to dispatch of her. Unfortunately her power seemed to cloak her from the detection of angels so they sent out entire garrisons to find her and her mother. Of course the power only cloaked the child…the mother was easy enough to find.

Castiel was the angel who found the abandoned cabin in which Rachel and her child where hidden. Uriel should have been with him but had left to deal with a particularly large group of demons who had also begun to track down the child and her mother. Castiel wasn't too concerned with this, it was just a baby after all and her mother was just a human. They posed him little threats.

And yet… when Castiel entered the house silently as the wind and stood over the crib with angel blade in hand something made him hesitate. It might have been that the baby was awake, he'd expected her to be asleep, but she stared up at him with deep brown eyes that could easily be mistaken for black. For a moment angel and baby just stared at one another.

"I'm sorry" Castiel found himself muttering as he raised his angel blade high above his head ready to bring it down on the child…

And she giggled, little hands holding her own feet, showing off her toothless gums and something popped in the room. Suddenly Castiel could sense the child when before she had been registering as nothing to him. Now he could feel her magic, he could sense the overwhelming power within her feeling both angelic and demonic and yet neither side was warring in her body. She was well balanced. She giggled again and Castiel found his grip on his angel blade loosen in hesitation…

He stared into the child's large eyes and found something he hadn't expected. Goodness. There was no evil in this child no matter what power or blood might run in her veins. Castiel dropped his blade.

 _This order didn't come from god_. He knew that when he was sent out, all the angels knew that.

 _He wouldn't do it. He couldn't do it._ There was something special about this child, perhaps not what Logan had been trying to create, but there was a plan for her. He could feel that much…

 _This order was not from god, and he would not feel bad about not going through with it._

 _Or would he?_

 _He should just do it. This child might not be evil right then but she had the capacity to be the same as any other infant..._

 _But perhaps not… perhaps with careful guidance…_

Castiel continued to glare down at the child while waring with himself, and the baby started to blow raspberries and giggled before she glanced at him as if wondering if he found this as amusing as she did. Then she began to wave her arms in the air in the way Castiel knew as an infant seeking physical contact with a caregiver. He wasn't a caregiver… and yet he found himself scooping the child out of the crib before he actually registered what he was doing. He held her a little gingerly, more than aware that he could break her with a single wrong touch, and found one hand ghosting over her fragile head feeling her dark hair as soft as the feathers of his own wings. After a few moments she made a contented noise and he pulled her away from him to try gauge her mood from her expression.

And he felt something then, an air around this child… curiously Castiel tilted his head and pressed a hand to her chest. Ah… _oh_. He frowned. Someone had carved Enochian symbols onto this child. Castiel hurriedly put the child back down, contemplating… because he was sure, more than sure, that the angel Logan would not have bothered with carving protection into this child. And they did not feel like marks of protection…

Castiel frowned again, obviously someone had marked this child with something… his eyes widened, what if it was god? The power residing in this child, the combination of angel and demon and human, she should not have survived birth and yet nearly a year later she is perfectly healthy? Was this the will of his father?

Castiel took a step back, aware that Uriel would be finished with the demons soon and would be unlikely to question orders from their superior regarding a child he already condemned as an abomination… should he just let Uriel take care of it? …No. Castiel frowned at the child and, picking up his blade once more, took hold of a small arm and left a narrow cut down her arm. For a second the baby did nothing – and then she wailed. Castiel was unsurprised but he ignored her cries as he pressed his hand against the blood and healed her. At least now he had her blood as 'proof' he had 'killed' her. He removed his hand but scowled when he saw his blade, even after healing, had left a narrow silver mark on her arm. Apparently she was not immune to an angel blade.

Castiel moved to Rachel in the bed across the room. She had not even stirred at the cry of her child. Exhausted from running probably. Castiel pressed a hand to her chest to carve her with the Enochian symbols that would protect her from detection of angel or demon alike and then with a final long glance at the child he was supposed to kill he exited to shack.

At the edge of the forest, quite some miles from the shack, he met Uriel. He would have felt when the woman – if not the child since he should not sense her anyway - vanished from his detection. It would be easy to claim he had killed the child and her mother. Castiel stood beside the other angel. "Demons?" he asked.

"Vermin" Uriel replied "easily disposed. There is blood on your hand."

"The child. It's done." Castiel murmured looking at the blood on his hand.

"Then let us return home, I am tired of this marble" Uriel sighed. Together they left the vessels they had been using – two choir boys from a local church who'd agreed blindly, luckily since they had only used them for a few hours it was unlikely there would be extensive damage to them – and returned to heaven. Castiel often found himself watching the child he'd allowed to live curiously, though he never visited again.

Not until he decided the Winchesters could do with a helping hand years later.


	2. Chapter One

_Okay not going to lie I totally had some fun writing this, I'm quite liking this new character Faythe. This chapter is mostly her first adventure with the boys, stopping one of the 66 seals of the apocalypse (I totally made up the seal by the way so don't take my word on it). Now I am absolutely exhausted - otherwise this chapter wouldn't have taken so long to write. Damn migraines. I hope you enjoy this chapter and feel free to leave some feedback._

* * *

 **CHAPTER ONE**

Faythe's eyes snapped open though met with the darkness of the night she was sure she had hear something strange in the night that had woken her. She lay on the uncomfortable motel bed, frozen, waiting for the noise to repeat itself.

She heard noise outside her motel door. She glanced at it. "Tis some visitor" she muttered to herself as her heart pounded in her chest and her hand closed on the comfortable feeling of her blade under her pillow "tapping at my chamber door—only this and nothing more…"

Faythe crept out of the bed without disturbing her covers and edged along the walls of the dark room, and the air of the room was suddenly disturbed by the noise of beating wings and a slight breeze ruffled the curtains of the closed window. Faythe tensed against the wall, waiting, aware that something was in the room. She heard soft footfalls as someone approached the now empty bed, it was hard to see them in the dark however and she relied on her other senses to tell her the location of the intruder. She held her breath, trying to hear better and on a guess she leapt forward into a crouch her leg swinging out and sweeping the intruders legs out from under him she knelt on his chest and pressed the silver blade into his throat. "Who are you?" she growled.

Whoever was under her however didn't seem intimidated because a thundery voice growled right back "I don't have time for this" before a large had enclosed over her arm and she was suddenly overcome with the sensation of being stuck in a tube before she and whoever was under her where deposited non to gently on the floor of yet another hotel room… only this one had the lights on.

"Cas!" someone yelled harshly, paused, and began to chuckled "man, Cas you sly dog" the same voice said sounding more amused.

Faythe got over her disorientation quickly, blade still pressed into the throat of the man underneath her. He was quite a striking man now that she could see him, with messy black hair that looked sleep tousled and beautiful blue eyes. He was staring at her grimly however. She kind of wondered why he hadn't used the moment she'd been disorientated to throw her off him, but didn't linger on the thought. Maybe he wasn't as clever as he looked.

"Uh, Dean" another voice to join the first. She still hadn't looked up to see who else as in the room. She was pretty sure the biggest threat was the angel beneath her and she wasn't about to take her eyes from him for a second. "Dean she's got a knife on him" the second voice said again.

Faythe heard the noise of people moving. She knew that someone would try to grab her and she wasn't wrong, strong arms closed around her shoulders in an effort to pin her arms to her side and pull her off the angel. The angel jumped up pretty quickly, eyes widened when he saw the flash in Faythe's eyes. "Dean-!" he yelled a warning too late.

Dean gave a startled yelp as the arm of his shirt suddenly set on fire and he dropped Faythe. She landed on her feet and quick as a cat found a good defensive point with her back to a corner of the room so no one could come up from behind her. She held her blade in her hand still, just a little way from her body and at chest height ready if someone should attack her.

Dean had chucked his shirt into the sink and stood there in only his black tee rubbing the spot on his arm that was warm and beginning to blister while he glared at Faythe – who glared right back – and Sam stood warily at his side glancing between them both. "Dean, you-"he began to ask.

"-I'm fine" Dean snapped at him, then looked at Castiel "Cas who the hell is this?"

Sam looked at the blade in her hand "is she another angel?"

Faythe snorted in derision but didn't say anything. Castiel glanced at her and back to the boys "yes and no."

Sam and Dean frowned at the angel who seemed to understand this was an indication that he should elaborate on his cryptic answer. "She has angel DNA, is the daughter of… quite a mad angel. But she is not an angel. In fact her DNA is so crossed with Demon and Human as well that she is considered quite the abomination."

"She also doesn't like to be dragged to bed for impromptu slumber parties" Faythe growled then. She never did like someone bringing up her heritage.

Castiel frowned at her "this is neither the time for slumber nor parties."

Faythe felt her scowl drop, though her stance did not, and she looked at Sam and Dean for some kind of help. They at least appeared normal. "Is he serious?"

"As the plague" Dean replied dryly "Cas why did you grab a girl in her undies out of bed in the middle of the night to drag her here?"

This was the point that Faythe realised she really was in her underwear. Well, she was in what she considered to be pyjama's which consisted of an old AC/DC shirt at least two sizes too large for her and a pair of black panties. The second Dean pointed this out three gazes seemed to land on her and take in the sight of her long slender legs, lingering on the black cat tattoo on her ankle, and though she managed to feel a little flattered she was more irritated.

Castiel cleared his throat and everyone looked back at him. "You said you needed help to stop this seal being broken" he waved at Faythe "her…unique abilities aside she is a very good hunter."

"We didn't ask for help Cas we asked for _your_ help" Dean replied, glancing at Faythe and saying with a cocky grin "no offence sweetheart, I'm sure you're a good hunter and all but…"

Faythe wasn't concerned what Dean had to say, her gaze was on Castiel and she was lowering her blade just slightly "the seals?" she asked warily "your trying to stop Lilith breaking the seals?"

Everyone gaze landed back on her. Sam asked softly "what do you know about Lilith, and the seals?"

Faythe glanced at him "bits and bobs I picked up during exorcisms… I didn't believe it until the Rising of the Witnesses, after that I've been going after demons who're trying to break seals…"

Dean raised his chin and studied her like she was a prized hound at a dog show. "How many seals have you stopped?"

"Three" she replied raising her own chin defiantly "but that's nothing compared to how many have been broken, and it really doesn't man I'll help you" she turned to glare at Castiel "I don't work for angels. I've told your kind this several times since the seals started being broken and they tracked me down. I won't be a pawn."

Castiel glared right back at her, taking slow steps forwards "I am the only reason you're alive. I was the one who stood above your crib when you were just a babe and decided not to plunge my blade into your helpless form. You might want to show a little respect."

He was stood right in front of her when she replied "respect should be earned not demanded, life debt or none."

"You are insolent."

"And you're just another self-righteous asshole."

"Whoa-okay" Dean pulled Faythe and Castiel apart before one of them could say anything else, feeling very much like a teacher between bickering children he said to Castiel first "okay Cas when you want to ask someone for help, this isn't how you do it. As for you-"he turned to Faythe "-I really think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Dean and this is my brother Sam. Obviously you've met Castiel."

Faythe's eyes darted to Dean back to Castiel and then to Sam, then she took a step back from Cas and introduced herself "I'm Faythe. Why exactly do you need help? I mean I have heard of you guys…okay not the angel he's a surprise but I have heard of the Winchester brothers. I doubt there's a hunter still alive who hasn't."

Sam and Dean didn't look like they thought this was a good thing. Faythe doubted it really was a good thing, after all the first time she'd heard of the Winchester brothers it was because they'd let a hell gate be opened. Sam was the one who was forthcoming with an answer while Dean just continued to frown. "We can't get to the seals fast enough to stop them being opened" Sam confessed "and Lilith is moving faster…"

"No she's not moving faster, Lilith has a hundred or even more demons at her disposal and you two have what? Each other, feather's over there who takes his orders from heaven and probably isn't much help at all-"at this point Castiel threw her a dirty look "-maybe a few other hunters of your acquaintance and you want me as well?"

The two brothers looked uncomfortable, Castiel continued to glare at her with narrowed eyes, and Faythe chewed her lip thinking. She didn't want the seal's broken any more than these boys did, hell on earth did not sound fun. Then again working with them would probably lead to more attention from angels. On the other hand it might give her a good shot at kicking he asses of a certain few angels who were horribly persistent in trying to get her to work for them… and then there was this angel here who she apparently owed a life debt. It might be nice to work with other hunters for a while, it wasn't like she had much opportunity to make friends. It had been just her and her mother for years, until she was thirteen and Rachel died and hunting wasn't exactly a social activity. Faythe sighed "alright, I'll work with you on one condition."

"What?" Dean frowned wondering what on earth she might want from them.

"That you allow me to go back to my motel room and get some _goddamned pants!_ "

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

When Faythe returned to the motel where the Winchesters where staying she was dressed finally in her usual black tank top, black skinny jeans, and a soft black leather coat. She had a worn old rucksack over one shoulder that held all the belongings she had, mostly weapons and clothes. The boys noticed her arrival and acknowledged it with a nod as they themselves packed up duffel bags. Castiel was nowhere in sight.

"You ready?" Dean asked from the door looking at Faythe.

"Sure" she readjusted her grip on her bag and followed Dean out of the door "so which car's yours?"

He led her proudly to a sleek black 67' Impala. Dean stroked along her hood on his way to the driver's seat and flashed Faythe a grin "this is baby."

"She's gorgeous" Faythe touched the roof softly like the car could feel her "I think this is first time I've been jealous of not having a car myself…"

"You don't drive?"

"No, I can drive. Although I wouldn't trust me on busy American roads. I'm British after all, so I learned to drive on the other side of the pond and on the other side of the road" she winked at him as he slid into the driver's seat and she slid into the back. When Sam joined them slipping into the front passenger seat she asked "so where are we headed?"

"Stillwater, Oklahoma" Sam shifted in his seat so he could see both Faythe in the back and Dean in the front. "Last month two women killed their children and then themselves. Since then there have been reports to sightings of a woman in a white dress in areas where over seventeen men have gone missing."

"A woman in white?" Faythe guessed taking the handful of news reports Sam was handing back to her and looking through them "Geesh how many unfaithful men can there be in one town?"

"Cas said one of the seals is to create five women in white of the same bloodline" Dean said glancing at her in the back mirror "the two women where sisters, we think they're both women in white."

"Which would explain the large amount of vanished men in just a month…" Faythe muttered "do these women have more sisters?"

"Edith Mallark and June Smith have a third older sister, Rose Howard and two female cousins all in the same town" Sam handed her more papers with photos of the women. He'd scribbled underneath the ones who had already died.

Faythe looked at them, all the women had the same oval faces and green eyes, and she sighed "the death of a beautiful woman, is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world…"

"What?" Dean frowned.

Sam smiled however "Edgar Allan Poe?" he asked.

Faythe met his gaze and winked "Sam I'm really starting to like you."

* * *

When they arrived in Stillwater Dean decided that rather than waste time finding a motel first they'd best go and check on the next potential victim Rose Howard. They pulled into the street she lived on and slowed. It was obvious something was wrong even without the glaring lights of the ambulance and police cars. Faythe, Sam and Dean got out of the car and approached the crowed of neighbours.

"Hey" Dean managed to grab an old man in pyjamas and a bathrobe "what's going on?"

The old man was more than happy to chat "horrible. Really, horrible. Poor family. Mr Howard came home to find his wife and kid's dead at the kitchen table, gas leak apparently…" the old man spotted someone he knew and shuffled away, his slippers making odd squeaking noises.

Sam, Faythe and Dean didn't make a sound as they stood there a little longer looking at the house. They were all thinking the same thing, if this was a demon trying to create more women in white it had likely made three successfully. That left two more.

After a while, in which Faythe had been watching the house for signs of movement after they'd brought out the bodies, she leaned into the boys and asked "do you think anyone's in the house right now?"

Sam frowned and squinted "doesn't look like it, why-?" he turned to look at her, but she was gone. He looked at Dean whose expression was also surprise "did she just-?"

"Dammit" Dean turned his attention back to the house, just waiting for a sudden alarm to sound, but for a while there was nothing. Still he and Sam waited, tense.

"Hey" Faythe reappeared behind them, starling them both and trying not to grin at the way they jumped "sorry, but here's sulphur all over that house" she held up a plastic baggie of yellow powder "if she wasn't possessed than I'm more than sure the husband was."

"Why the husband?"

"Think about it. A woman in white is created when a woman finds her husband is cheating and in a moment of insanity off's herself and her children. The woman has to do that _willingly_ to become a woman in white, so she can't have been possessed, but I'll bet ten bucks the husband was. To make him cheat, and allow her to find out. A demonic poke in the right direction."

"Alright then" Dean gave her a look that said he was impressed, she considered asking if he'd doubted her but realised it would have been stupid. Of course he doubted her, they'd only met a few hours ago. Her people skills really where rusty. "Should we start with the first husband? See if he has any blanks in his memory?"

Faythe frowned "I think at this point it would be a waste of our time. If this is a seal then they only have two more to go. I think we should find the other two potentials and keep an eye on their husbands."

Dean gave her another impressed look and glanced at Sam "Sammy?"

Sam shrugged "she's right Dean."

"Okay then. Let's go, should be easy since the other two live in the same house…"

"They're raising families together?" Faythe wrinkled her nose as they walked back to the car "I don't know if I could stand being that close to other people."

"You don't have family?" Sam asked her, getting in the car.

"Don't be stupid… I _had_ a mother."

"What happened?"

Faythe shrugged "she was a hunter, and I wasn't supposed to be alive. I made a mistake on a hunt with her and angel's found us. I got away, she didn't."

Sam looked into the back seat her, cocking his head to one side sympathetically. He didn't say any sympathetic words however, something in her eyes said that she wouldn't appreciate them. "How old where you?" he asked instead giving her a good look, she couldn't have been older than her early twenties.

"Thirteen" she said, noting the way he squinted at her "I'm twenty-two by the way, I can see you trying to figure it out."

"You been hunting alone for nine years?" Dean asked frowning into the rear view mirror.

Faythe met his glance in the mirror feeling a little amused "Dean… I'm a big girl. Even at thirteen I was a bit...a bit harder to kill than a _normal_ human. You've dealt with angels, you don't have a target on your back from those feathery dicks without being made of tough stuff…"

"Heh" Dean chuckled "that is true…"

* * *

They ended up splitting to watch the possible targets. Sam drew the short straw and ended up stuck in the car outside the large house where the two young families lived and the housewives spent their days looking after the young children. He complained, and Faythe told him to read a book. She and Dean weren't exactly having a thrilling time either. Dean had been letting one of the husbands show him eight different houses now so that he could keep close eye on the relator, and Faythe had been sitting on a bench watching the other husband do his desk job and was starting to feel the wood imprint on her skin.

Their afternoon didn't perk up until later then the husbands left for work. Faythe's chosen target left first and rather than going home he went straight from work to a strip club. She was surprised, he'd seemed so…vanilla. She walked into the surprisingly nice club and took a seat two or three behind the husband.

She wasn't surprised when the other husband joined him and they sat together for a drink watching the dancing women. Dean soon followed, spotting first the husband and then Faythe. He joined her at the table. "Has anyone offered you a lap dance yet?" he grinned while ordering a beer from the waitress and eyeing her scantily clad backside as she walked away.

"Three times actually" Faythe replied with a smirk "but if you're offering Dean… I'm going to have to decline. It might impair our working relationship."

Dean snorted then winked at her as he accepted the beer from the waitress "sweetheart you don't know what you're missing. Maybe you should dance for me instead?"

"Oh sweetie" she pouted at him "I would dance for you, but I doubt you'd be able to handle it. I'd burn you."

"You nearly did burn me" he gave her a look referring to her setting his shirt on fire when he grabbed her earlier.

Faythe dropped the flirty look in exchange for a sheepish one "I am sorry about that… I don't have the best control. One time someone made me jump and I accidentally set my own hair on fire."

He gave a small smile "seriously?"

"Yeah" she took a sip of her own beer watching the way he stared at the dancers on stage but would occasionally glance in her direction. "I take it you don't hang around with-uh-non humans very often? I get it, I'm the kind of thing you're used to hunting… believe it or not a fair few have tried hunting me in the past…"

"I can imagine" Dean cut her off surprised to see she was beginning to ramble, considering just moments ago she had appeared flirtatious and confident "I am used to hunting things that-yeah. But… I don't know, hell with the wold literally about to fall into the apocalypse even I can be persuaded to make an exception…"

"Well. I'll drink to being the exception and thank you very much for it…" they smiled and drank together, casting glances on the men they were supposed to be watching. Faythe doubted anything would distract them from the bare breasted dancers on the stage for the next few minutes. She looked at Dean instead and was surprised to find him watching her too. "I do… I try-"she found herself frowning to try explain "I mean I didn't want to be…this. I do try to be human…"

Dean stopped her with a shrug "we're all trying to be human. We all have to capacity to be a monster."

"That was poetic, I don't think you do poetic very often."

"No I don't, don't get used to it and don't tell Sam" he glared at her mockingly "so… your guy show any signs of possession?"

"My guy didn't show any signs of anything except perhaps a repressed anger issue which will probably make it easier for him to be possessed" Faythe replied dryly "how about your guy?"

"My guy is extremely chatty. I was about ready to pull my own ears off to get him to stop nattering" Dean said "how are we going to check if they're possessed already?"

Faythe thought about it. "You could go bless the water outside in the mains and I could 'accidentally' set fire to something in here and they would get dowsed with holy water from the sprinkler system?"

Dean raised his eyebrows "get a load of miss double-oh-seven."

"Never seen those movies" she dismissed "James Bond never appealed to me. What's your idea then Mr Macho?"

He winked at her, getting up suddenly and heading to the men's room. Faythe was left frowning for a few minutes until he exited the bathroom again, taking a detour on the way back to the table to pass by the two men. She saw him stumble of the back of a chair and cover his mouth as he said something when he passed them before he sat with Faythe again. "What was that?" she asked.

"I said _Christo_ when I walked past" he smirked at her like a satisfied cat "no reaction. They're not possessed."

"Okay, well, even with a possible demon going around creating women in white we have the already created spirits to take care of as well. And these aren't going to be bones to burn either."

Dean pulled a face "I hate it when they're all fleshy. We'll take care of those tonight."

"While keeping an eye on the happy families?"

"Three of us can split up. We can draw straws again."

"I'll watch the folks" Faythe smiled "give your brother a chance to stretch his legs."

"For grave digging? He might not appreciate it too much…"

* * *

Blending into the shadows was not a skill Faythe learned genetically, it was something she learned living on the streets as a young woman. Sure back then she was still as good a fighter as she was now, but why should she have to fight everyday just to keep herself safe from some unsavoury characters? She learned how to make herself as invisible as possible.

The boys took the car. Dean had looked uncomfortable offering to let her sit in it outside the house while she watched the family so she declined his offer, she could see better from her position standing behind a large leafy bush and under a tree in the back garden anyway. She was talking into her phone with the boys. "No I don't see anything but a very nice looking ham roast" she was saying.

"Ham?" Dean's voice perked up suddenly at that.

"Get digging Dean" Sam's voice was a little distant but she still heard him growl.

"How close are you guys to being done?"

"Well this would be the second body we're digging up tonight and we still have to break into a morgue for the third so let's just say halfway?"

Faythe narrowed her eyes as the lights of the house flickered suddenly. Even the solar lights outside. "Dean… I'm going to have to call you back."

"Wait Faythe-"she hunt up before she heard what else he had to say, aware suddenly of two male figures walking up the front drive. She could sense them, her skin felt heated. Demons. She didn't bother trying to run and intercept the demons before they reached the house, she teleported onto the front step and the demons didn't even realise until they were standing just a few feet away.

"Hey boys" she grinned at them "little birdy told me you've been stirring up some trouble… you naughty boys."

The demons said nothing, just glanced at each other. Faythe chuckled lightly and from the sleeve of her leather jacket allowed the angel blade to drop into her hand. The demons took a step back, warily eying her. "You're not an angel" one of them possessing a bald man said.

"No shit Sherlock" she chuckled again "I'm something a little worse. I know what you've been doing to these families and it stops _now_."

The demons laughed now "is one little girl and an angel blade going to stop us?" he cackled "you have no idea who you're messing with kid, what we're doing-"

"-blah, blah, blah if you give me the speech about Lucifer and the seals again I'm going to kill you just to shut you up" Faythe rolled her eyes "you realised that ole' Lucy is fundamentally an angel and that he probably will kill all the demons once he's had his use from you?"

"You know nothing. He will give us the world" the demon sneered.

Faythe sighed "stupidity is a talent for misconception" she said, and the balled demon lunged for her. Faythe threw her fist smashing into the demons face and causing him to stumble back several steps and she used his second of unbalance to kick him in the middle and send him to the floor. The second demon took this second to swing his fist connection with Faythe's temple before she could kill the demon. Her turn to stumble back a few steps, lights flashing in her eyes as she felt a bit disorientated. Not, however, disorientated enough not to recognise the sound of the 67' Impala engine roaring onto the street. The lights stopped flashing in time for her to see Sam and Dean getting out of the car rushing forward, but the second demon was getting up and trying to take advantage of her moment of weakness. He swung a fist as the first demon tried to hold Faythe in place but she moved, the fist swinging into the other demon, and while the one holding her was distracted she cut his hand with the angel blade. He released her almost immediately and she shoved him – right into Sam who stabbed him with the knife he was holding. The demon smoked, his body electrified. Faythe had momentarily been distracted by that, but she saw the second demon and Dean grappling. She held her blade and flung it, it slotted into the ribs of the demon and killed it, its body crumpling before another fist could swing into Deans already bleeding nose.

They all stood there for a minute, adrenaline surging through their bodies. "Did you finish with the bodies?" Faythe asked through her slight panting.

"Haven't hit the morgue yet" Dean replied "we were concerned you wouldn't be able to handle this…"

Faythe raised her eyebrows as she removed her blade from the ribs of the demon smoothly. Dean and Sam had the decency to look a little embarrassed of their assumption. She shrugged to let them know it was okay. "What do we do with these two?" she frowned at the bodies "we can't just leave them for this family to discover, I mean they have little kids…"

Sam looked troubled by this too, but it wasn't like there was a chance to remove them without someone seeing. They were just lucky the house was surrounded by trees giving them enough cover for their fight to have gone unnoticed. Sam glanced at Faythe "uh…can't you move them?"

"You mean… teleport with them?"

"Yeah."

"I can, but I'll need food and rest. It tends to drain me a bit. Like using telekinesis."

"You can do that too?"

"It gives me a nosebleed but yeah."

"Well ain't you full of surprises" Dean muttered "okay you take care of the dead guys and meet us at the morgue to take care of the dead woman and then we'll owe you Chinese food. Sound good?"

"Sounds great."

* * *

They rented a motel room for the night. They had debated getting two, one for Faythe herself, but decided just the one would be fine for the night and she wasn't too bothered at the idea of sharing so long as neither brother got touchy feely. From the grin on Dean's face she assumed this meant she'd be sharing with Sam. For now she was sitting on one of the hotel beds eating rice while Sam and Dean seemed to be battling out how many ribs they could each eat.

"So, Faythe…" Dean spoke for the first time since he began to eat eying up the young woman on the bed "what else can you do besides teleporting, set things on fire and telekinesis?"

"Telepathy" she replied before popping some more rice into her mouth.

"Really?" Sam raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Yeah."

"Go on then, what am I thinking right now?" Dean smirked at her, eyes raking up and down her form on the bed with a suggestive eyebrow wriggle.

Faythe rolled her eyes and then met his gaze with a narrowed glare. Sam watched for a second, though nothing appeared to happen, before Dean's eyes bugged out suddenly and he broke eye contact with a blush raising on his cheeks. "Oh, oh that was not cool Faythe" he muttered before going back to his ribs.

"What?" Sam was grinning "what'd you do?"

"Dean was having dirty thought's so I just gave him some more… about that old man in the dressing gown he met earlier." She winked as Sam began to laugh. "I have to say we managed to stop those demons in under forty-eight hour's guys… not sure if we're a good team or if they were pretty stupid. Or a combination of both."

The boys met each other's gaze knowingly before they looked at her. She was pointedly looking down at her box of rice. "So?" Dean asked.

Faythe shrugged feeling a little awkward "I was wondering if I could…uh… stick around with you guys for a bit? It just seems like you guys could use a bit of a hand and I'm more than willing if I get to nail the coffin on some demons, or a particular angel in fact, and I don't particularly _want_ the apocalypse to happen…"

"Faythe" Sam was grinning like he was trying not to laugh "are you trying to ask if you can hunt with us?"

"Uh…yeah" she looked at them a little awkwardly "sorry, I'm a little awkward… I don't meet a lot of people who don't want to kill me… actually you guys are the first besides my mum."

Dean hesitated "well we don't usually…"

"Dean we could use the help?" Sam prompted.

Dean still tried to keep his grin from his face to tease her a little more. It didn't work however after Faythe gave him a look and said "I could just keep reappearing in your car's back seat?"

There was a fluttering noise and the three of them looked up, finding Castiel standing near the second bed. "I also insist that she should stay with your company Dean. Well done stopping this seal by the way."

Faythe threw a troubled look at the angel, not afraid to admit that part of her wanted to leave now the angel wanted her to stay. She was curious though, and wasn't the only one apparently because Dean frowned and asked "why?"

"Her… re-emergence has certain repercussions for myself as the one who lied about killing her as an infant" Castiel explained, keeping his focus on Dean and not wandering to Faythe though he was quite aware of her frowning at him "I believe however that her partnership with you shall keep her as an asset in the eyes of my superiors, even after she has declined a certain job offer from us already."

The boys frowned at each other, but Faythe was more confused about something else. "Why?" she asked, putting down the box of rice and sitting up further, Castiel's blue eyes finally being drawn to her dark ones "why are you so keen that I be kept safe?"

"Because…" Castiel hesitated before he said "because I sensed symbols carved into your chest as an infant that no angel placed. I believe these where put there by my father. I believe that god has a plan for you, Faythe."


	3. Chapter Two

_Summary: Takes place at the start of Season 5, months after Faythe has joined the boys. I guess you could consider this quite a fluffy chapter so enjoy._

* * *

 **CHAPTER TWO**

Lucifer was walking free and rather than sticking together the Winchester boys had split. Faythe could understand their reasons – hunting when you can't trust each other or yourself was never a good thing – but she couldn't help wanting to slap them both over the back of the head. The apocalypse was no time to be splitting up. Not that she could really talk. She and the angel Castiel couldn't seem to have a conversation without having some form of argument, which was not conductive to fighting the apocalypse or finding god. Not always but frequently it would end in petty name calling and sometimes Cas would vanish again before he'd even remembered to give Dean whatever message he'd arrived to tell.

Faythe tried to bounce her time around between Sam and Dean as well as taking care of demon omens too far away for Dean to travel quickly and checking up on Bobby who didn't appear to be handling his new wheel chair status too well… it was on a very rare occasion that she would pop in to see how Castiel's god hunt was going.

She had just taken care of a particularly feisty nest of demons who'd been keen to flatten a small Louisiana town when Faythe got a call from Bobby. "Faythe" he said when she answered, not bothering for a hello "Sam's tracked some omens not far from where he's staying."

"He's back to hunting?" she asked surprised cleaning demon blood from her angel blade.

"No" Bobby sighed "I had'ta send a group of local hunters."

"Okay" she frowned "what're you calling me for?"

"Would'ya just go talk to him?"

"Bobby… we can't make Sam hunt, as much as we could really use his help…"

"No but maybe you could talk some sense into the boy…"

She ran a hand through her loose dark hair and looked up at the night sky, twinkling with a dozen stars. She sighed. Sitting under a pollution less sky was one of her first memories, staring up at the sky and just loving the freedom of stars… "Okay, I'll swing by for a beer but I won't force him to hunt Bobby."

"That's all I ask" he hung up.

Faythe set about finishing up her hunt. It wouldn't do to just leave the demon bodies lying around so she pulled them unto a small mile and using her abilities set a controlled fire and allowed it to burn until they were little more than ash and bone fragments. By the time she was finished her head was pounding and her nose was trickling blood steadily but she didn't care. She retrieved her bag of belongings from a bush she'd hidden it in and teleported her way to the motel Sam was living in. She knocked on the door, swaying on her own feet.

Sam cracked the door open just a bit, but looked relived when he saw it was her and ushered her inside. She saw him put away a simple kitchen knife and lock the door again once she was inside. "Since when did you knock on doors?" he asked jokingly.

"I thought it was polite" she replied dabbing her nose "do you have a tissue?"

He started to notice her bleeding nose and quickly retrieved tissue from the bathroom. Faythe thanked him quietly sitting in a chair and leaning forward to allow her nose to bleed. "How hard did you push yourself?" Sam frowned knowing she only got nosebleeds like this when she pushed her abilities too far.

"Uh…" she hesitated answering "well, I actually slept last night which is surprising. I've been bouncing around between you and Dean and Bobby and omens and hell I even popped in on Castiel once."

Sam winched, she saw him do that guilty puppy dog look before he said "Faythe…you don't have to keep an eye on me, I'm not hunting…"

"You might not be hunting Sam but that doesn't mean something isn't hunting you. Anyway…you're my friend" she threw him a shy smile "I don't have many friends. I'd like to keep the ones I do have. I don't mind, I just have to…not set piles of demons on fire anymore…"

Sam got up and went to his little motel fridge. When he came back he offered her a soda which she took gratefully "hello sugar" she said popping the cap and drinking greedily. Sam grinned and popped the cap off his beer. He would have offered her a beer but he knew the sugar in the fizzy drink would aid her recovery far better than the beer would.

"So, how's things here?" Faythe asked once she'd drank nearly half the can of pop "is that waitress still interested in you?"

"She tried to get my life story" Sam replied sitting on the bed and reclining "and a date."

"Oooh ladies' man" Faythe wriggled her eyebrows making him laugh.

The smile soon dropped and silence settled as Sam gave her an odd look. "Hey, Faythe… you said you've never been to school right?"

"Yeah" she'd mentioned it when Sam and Dean had to go undercover at one of their old schools. She's spent her youth learning from books, having a particular love for Edgar Allan Poe which Sam had noticed she tended to quote on occasion.

"What _was_ your childhood like?"

Faythe frowned as she dabbed the tissue against her top lip to check for more blood on her nose. She didn't find any, pity, she'd have liked an interruption for this conversation. "Sam… it's not a nice story. You don't want to know."

"If I didn't want to know, why would I ask?" he replied softly and she glanced up to see him doing the puppy dog expression again.

"Tsk, Dean told me your puppy eyes would get me in trouble…" she muttered, then sighed "okay. First off… my mum was addicted to demon blood, I told how that's the way Logan – daddy dearest- got the demon blood into me before I was born."

Sam's eyebrows raised "you never told us that."

Faythe knew what he meant. She'd never told him that, not even after finding out he was addicted too. "Yeah because it would've led to my questionable childhood" she replied with another sigh then met his gaze "my mother was an addict raising a child born to hunt. You can imagine what… let's just say the first time I killed a demon I was nine."

" _Nine_?"

"Not human, remember?" she pointed out "and my mum was there to help… but the point was she never told me about exorcisms. I thought the only way to kill a demon was to also kill the host, I didn't know you could save them."

A look of realisation spread on Sam's face, one mixed with horror as he said "she had you do it for the blood?"

"Yeah… until I witnessed other hunters doing an exorcism… I'd just turned thirteen… I was-well-I was furious with her. Didn't matter though, a couple of weeks later she was killed by a particular asshat of an angel. He's been trying to make me work for him ever since."

"Who?"

"Zachariah" she gave him a grim look "yeah, you knew he recognised me in that footlocker…"

Sam sighed "you should stick with Dean if you want a shot at Zachariah…"

"I'll visit him in a minute, I want to know you're okay first Sam. Bobby's sending hunters after your tip by the way."

"I thought that's why you'd come, to check it out yourself and try get me to hunt…"

"Nah, I have enough to do and I won't make you hunt Sam. It's your decision."

He gave her a thankful smile. They chatted for an hour further, until Faythe had drank two soda's and was feeling far better than when she'd landed on his doorstep. Still she knew she had to go find Dean, and Sam knew it too, so after a hug goodbye she disappeared to go and find Dean.

She didn't know if she was surprised or not when she reappeared in a brothel, but she was certainly surprised to find Castiel there too. Actually… the angel looked terrified, and Dean was smirking so she assumed feather's had been dragged there against his will perhaps. Neither of them noticed she was there until one scantily clad woman appeared with two beers, her eyes landing on Faythe and seemed to light up. "We don't get many women, anything I can get you sweetheart?"

"A coke if you have any" Faythe smiled at the waitress, amused to see how violently Castiel jumped compared to Dean and look at her with a horrified expression.

"Faythe" Dean greeted her leaning back in his seat and giving a lazy grin "where've you been?"

"Taking care of some demons in Louisiana" she replied, taking the glass of coke when the waitress returned and winking at her "thanks love. I visited Sam too."

"You got your eye on our waitress?" Dean grinned.

"I've got demon blood Dean, allow me my wicked side" she grinned at him.

Dean had watched every move and pointed at as he looked at Castiel. "See, she's relaxed Cas. Just chill…uh…wait, Faythe… which team do you play for?"

She frowned at him "what?"

"Team" Dean gave her a pointed look "preference? Boys or girls or… both?"

" _Oh_ " Faythe widened her eyes seeming to understand what he was asking "I…well, I've never thought about it."

"You've never thought about it?" Dean frowned "but you have…haven't you?"

"Have what?"

Dean stared at her for a few moments, then looked at Castiel and covered his face with his hands and groaned. "Are you telling me I'm sitting in a brothel with not one but two bloody virgins?"

Faythe wasn't actually surprised about Castiel but she was a bit annoyed with how Dean frowned at her. "Hey" she snapped at him "some of us just…don't get the chance, okay?"

Dean didn't get to say anything else, interrupted as one of the women came over interested in Cas. Faythe sat quietly, quite amused actually, as the petrified looking angel was taken into the back. Dean sat back down, and she became aware of him watching her. "What?" she growled at him.

"I just… I don't get it, how you haven't-"Dean shook his head "I mean, it's not like you're a bad looker Faythe… your, well, you're very attractive." Dean's eyes lingered on her as he said this, feeling a little more embarrassed than he would have felt telling her this before she'd become a good friend of his. She had tan skin, a round face with round dark eyes and a small mouth usually pulled into a wicked grin or smirk. Yeah, he thought, if he'd seen her across a bar he'd probably hit on her.

"It's not like I haven't had… offers" Faythe shrugged a little awkwardly "I just… Dean it's different for me. I mean one slip up and I accidentally look into the guys mind and know everything he's thinking…"

"Oh…" Dean nodded "yeah okay, that could be awkward. Hey-"he threw her a cocky grin and winked before saying "-of you ever want someone with experience to show you the ropes…"

"Thanks Dean but I think that'd be more awkward than with a stranger-"she stopped talking, just as there was a scream from the back. She and Dean looked at each other and jumped up. It didn't take a lot of thinking to conclude that Castiel had likely done something weird…

Yeah, there stood the angel getting yelled at by the woman before she stormed off. Faythe hung back at the curtain watching the woman head straight for the security while Dean ran to Castiel's side and was soon laughing loudly at whatever the angel had said happened. Faythe didn't care what happened, she saw security heading their way and ran for the boys. "Exit. Now!" she growled at them, pushing them for the fire door. When they burst into the alley though, Dean was still laughing and she was smiling from the slight adrenaline rush. Castiel still looked quite clueless which made Faythe grin more. He was kind of cute like that. They piled into the Impala and returned to the cabin where they were staying. Every now and then Dean would chuckle again, but when they got to the cabin he decided to head off inside and sleep on the battered couch in there.

Faythe decided to stay outside a little longer, sitting on the hood of the Impala and leaning on the window to look up at the stars. She'd done this with Sam and Dean not that long ago… for one night it just felt like nothing bad was happening.

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" she sighed.

"Did you speak?" Castiel's rumbling voice made Faythe jump and she looked over her shoulder at him.

"Feathers. I thought you'd have gone inside with Dean."

"Dean is sleeping."

"I wouldn't put it past you to just watch him" she said dryly. There was a pause between them before she looked over at him again and found he too was looking up, an expression of wonder on his face as the stars where reflected in his blue eyes. "Do you want to join me Castiel?" she sighed, patting the hood of the car.

"I do not believe Dean would appreciate my sitting on his car."

"Dean, Sam and I have sat on the car to see the stars a few times" she replied softly turning her attention back up and allowing him to make a decision. It wasn't long before Castiel moved, though he didn't sit on the hood. He just leaned on it. After a while of silence Faythe decided to try speak with the angel and not end up arguing for once. "So I take it the search for your father isn't going so great?"

Castiel said nothing though she thought she saw his jaw twitch irritably. Okay, wrong conversation track…

"Faythe" he surprised her by glancing over his shoulder and asking "back at the…brothel. You told Dean you were a virgin?"

She tensed. "Yeah, I am."

The angel frowned "why? I mean… it's just you… everything about you says sexual maturity…"

"I'm not sure if that is a compliment feathers" she replied "why haven't you lost your v-card?"

"I have never… never had the occasion."

"Well, I've never had the… sense of comfort to do it. Can we drop this, it's a bit personal?"

"You dislike speaking of personal subjects?"

"I'm fine speaking about personal subjects… just not with you."

Castiel turned around fully, tilting his head curiously with a very slight frown. He stared at her for a few seconds sitting on the hood of the car with her knees drawn up to her chest with her arms wrapped around her legs. A look of realisation spread over his features "you don't trust me?"

"No" she answered honestly.

He scowled "what do I have to do for you to trust me? I have rebelled against heaven for all of you. For you, Faythe, I have disobeyed orders – you, you cannot imagine the punishment I received for allowing you to live."

"I never asked you to do that" she snapped at him irritably, hating the growing feeling of guilt in the pit of her stomach. "If you really believed that god has some divine plan for me than that is your fault, and his fault for whatever the other angels did to you. I never asked to be what I am… I never asked to be a freak."

"It doesn't matter what you did or did not ask for. What matters is what happened. I allowed you to live and you treat me with nothing but disrespect and mistrust."

Faythe frowned… if she didn't know better she'd say the emotion that had just flickered through his face was one of hurt, but surely her opinion of him didn't matter enough for that? She shook herself from that idea and replied "Castiel, your still an angel. I am… honestly? I am _terrified_ of you and your kind. I've been hunted by angels before and it's… not the best experience, and I don't want to relive it. I can fight of course but I don't know if I'm good enough to take down anything but a very low ranking angel. How am I to know that you won't receive an order one day, even far into the future, to kill me and because I made the mistake of trusting you that you would do it without my suspecting a thing?"

Castiel stared at her a little longer but eventually he turned around and stared at the floor rather than the sky. "Your reasoning is… quite shrewd. I can understand your fear."

"Thanks?" she frowned not sure if that was an appropriate reply. Anything else she wished to say vanished from her mind however when Castiel whirled around, his tan over coat flapping in the night air, before he grabbed both her ankles and dragged her down the hood of the Impala. Faythe stared up at him with wide shocked eyes as he leaned over her glaring. "Uh… what're you doing feathers?"

"Come" he pulled away from her, walking a few steps away from the car before he turned back around to face her. Curious Faythe slid the rest of the way off the car and took a step forward to approach him. She hesitated when she saw the glint of an angel blade in his hand.

"Castiel?" she asked in a warning voice.

"Come, you do not know if you are good enough to take on an angel? Let us see."

"You want to fight?" she frowned.

"Yes" he nodded once "now attack me Faythe, or would you rather I attacked you?"

"Cas… this isn't a good-" Faythe didn't get a chance to protest further because the angel lunged in a flap of tan coat and she only had a second to remove a wicked dagger from the belt of her jeans. It was a split second decision, she could have used her own angel blade but she refused to kill the only angel helping them at that moment even on an accident. Anyway Dean seemed to be a little attached to him and she doubted he'd like it if she accidentally killed Castiel. The angel blade made a note as it met the metal of her blade just inches from their chests. Faythe's eyes where wide with surprise as she looked at Castiel, whose expression was hard and unemotional.

Faythe pulled back her lips in a snarl and thrust with all her energy pushing him away from her by a few steps. Before he had regained his balance Faythe lunged forward, feigning left with the blade she instead moved in close while he tried to defend against her attack and grabbing his shoulders she wrapped a leg around his and pressed the heel of her foot into his knee. He frowned appearing confused right before his knee gave out and he went crashing to the floor. Faythe had all of three seconds to feel victory however before she realised she was being dragged to the floor too by the grip he had on her elbows. He rolled with her, and she rolled too, struggling with who would have pinned the other, until exhausted Faythe relented and allowed him to pin her to the floor, straddling her stomach. He held her hands above her head by the wrists until she dropped the knife. She lay there her chest heaving a she panted and stared up at the angel.

Eventually she had the breath to say "not good enough to beat an angel then?"

"On the contrary" he replied "you are very fast, faster than I gave you credit for. Had you not already been exhausted when we started this, and used your angel blade and whatever other abilities you have at your disposal then perhaps you might win."

"Well…thanks. Maybe I'll challenge you another time" she tilted her head at him in question to see if this was okay and saw him give her a single sharp nod as Castiel got up from her and offered her a hand. After slight hesitation she accepted his help and he pulled her up to stand. "Just… don't use the angel blade again."

"It can hurt you?"

"Angel blood, demon blood, human blood… let's see yes I am full of things that blade can kill so yeah it can hurt me too. Actually its one of the only things to ever leave a scar on my body."

He paused "on your forearm?"

"You saw?" she winced.

"I was the one who cut you there as an infant" he replied.

She blinked "oh, you meant the old scar…"

"There are new scars?"

Faythe sighed, figuring what the hell since Dean, Bobby and Sam had all seen her cut marks she removed her coat and showed Castiel her arm. He blinked at her, apparently not understanding. She saw the moment he clicked however and the serious worried look overtook his face. How strange that he should be worried. "Why?" he practically growled, a tone usually reserved for when something pissed him off.

"What?" Faythe gave him an irritated look "My mum had just died, I ran away to America, I was being hunted by angels and demons, I was thirteen and living on the streets and found out I'd just killed a dozen or so people that could've been saved if my mother hadn't been a demon blood addict and taught me exorcisms. I was in what you could call a bad place."

They paused for a moment, in which Faythe pulled on her coat again, and when she looked up she realised Castiel was smirking. "What?"

"You say you don't trust me yet you certainly act as though you do" he said sounding amused.

She threw him an irritated glare "don't get used to it feathers, tiredness can make people do stupid things. I'm going to catch a few hours' sleep in the backseat… can you stay out of trouble?" He glared at her now too, and Faythe couldn't help but smirk. "Goodnight, feathers."

"Goodnight Faythe."


	4. Chapter Three

**Summary:** _This update took a bit longer than I thought, I must have re-wrote this first part about seven times before I was happy with it. Two part chapter taking place in the season 5 episodes "The End" and "Abandon all Hope…"_

* * *

 **CHAPTER THREE**

Faythe popped up on Dean's bed while he was on the phone with Sam. She was happy at first – until Dean rejected working with Sam again. She scowled at him as he hung up, and he turned around starting a little to find her sitting on his bed. "Dammit" he growled "you need to wear a fricking bell."

"Why won't you work with Sam again?" she asked getting up off the bed, she winced as her shoulder moved.

Dean saw her wince. It was rare she got injured enough too actually show it, and he frowned "what happened to you?"

"Sparring match with Cas" she replied, tugging down the sleeve of her shirt to show him the mottled purple bruise on her shoulder. She had been popping up on Castiel for a while now, the angel seemed to use their little training fights to blow off frustrated steam every time he reached a dead end searching for god. He didn't go easy on her, and she kind of appreciated it despite all the bruises she was getting.

Dean poked the bruise and heard her hiss "maybe you should take a step back from those fights for a bit" he muttered "though, I prefer this to you arguing with him every time he appears."

"Yeah well…" she shrugged her shirt back over the bruise again "bigger issue. What is going on with you and Sam?"

"Don't you start" Dean growled again sitting back on the bed "they keep using Sam and I against each other. We are weaker together-"

"-Dean-"

"-I'm better hunting alone, Faythe, so don't you start either" he fixed her with a glare.

She met his glare with one of her own, shortly before she was distracted by the feeling of static crawling across her skin raising the hairs across her body…

* * *

The bad news?

Faythe and Dean where stuck in a world ravaged by the Croatoan virus. Zachariah soon popped in for a visit, considering she had been in the back seat while he was in the front of some rundown wreck of a car she and Dean had found she seriously gave some consideration to slitting his throat with the angel blade in her pocket. Especially when he said he wanted Dean to spent three days in this future, the one where he said 'no' to Michael.

Of course she'd felt a bit confused why she'd been sent back, until Zachariah looked back and fixed her with that bug eyed stare of his that made her lips pull back in a snarl. He'd said she would want to see this future too, see what would happen to her if she continued to decline working for the angels too.

The good news?

She didn't think they were going to die…

Of course this was before they were knocked out and locked up by future Dean. Hell she thought her Dean could be a big of a bastard, but in the future he was an absolute dick. She woke up handcuffed to a pipe. She watched the exchange between future Dean and past Dean with wide eyes, but saw the way future Dean kept flicking his gaze to her… she didn't know what emotion it was in those hard eyes but she was sure it wasn't good. Especially when he said that none of the survivors in his camp could see another demon, then turned to Faythe and said they especially couldn't see her. Either way future Dean left both her and past Dean handcuffed, and they both called him a 'dick'.

Dean, the one from the past, of course was not going to sit for the next two days handcuffed to a pipe. Within a minute he was wriggling an old nail out of the floorboard beside them. Faythe just watched, mildly impressed, as he got the nail free and had soon managed to pick himself out of the cuffs. He stood, rubbing his sore wrist and looked at Faythe.

"Well?" she frowned "you going to unlock me?"

He just stared at her. She narrowed her eyes "are you kidding Dean, you're just going to leave me here?"

He shrugged at her "sorry" and took off out the cabin.

"Wanker!" she yelled after him, struggling against her bond.

She actually felt rather embarrassed when she remembered that she could get out of cuffs as easily as Dean could devour a pie. She was kind of glad no one was around to see the blush on her face as she concentrated on teleporting without taking the cuff and radiator with her. She could just have easily melted the cuff chain down, thought she would've ended up with a damn headache afterwards. It took more effort than usual but eventually Faythe managed to move herself out of the cabin. With her eyes closed she teleported, and didn't open them until she felt a breeze on her face.

Maybe she should have tried to concentrate more on where she reappeared. Faythe looked around her forest surroundings but saw no signs of other people, nor the camp where the survivors stayed. It didn't really matter did it? Two days and Zach was going to put her back in her own time… he better put her back in her own time. Faythe began to walk in a general direction, her stomach rumbling she vaguely wondered if in this future there was still game to hunt in the forests… as a teenager she'd perfected her ability to hunt her own food during long treks from one town to the next, she never staying in one place long lest child services or the police try to grab her off the streets.

The crack of a twig to her left. Faythe froze, then ran to the nearest tree with a low hanging branch and pulled herself up. She climbed far enough up the tree that whoever was coming wouldn't see her. Good thing too, it looked like the Dean from her time was wandering through the trees too. She mustn't have been as far away from the camp as she thought she was. Dean soon passed her and Faythe peered after him curiously. She actually debated throwing a stick at him from her vantage point but by the time she'd made up her mind if she should do it he was gone from her sights. She was going to follow, but something else got her attention.

Faythe had just dropped from the tree when she heard voices she recognised coming towards her. It was hard to forget Castiel's gravelly voice and Chuck didn't sound like he'd changed at all… though he wasn't talking to the angel about toilet paper which was a bit odd until she caught the tail end of an explanation that the Dean Chuck had met was probably not the Dean from their time. The two men soon came across the part of the trail where she was waiting for them still leaning on her tree.

They froze. She gave them wary looks – maybe she should have found out what happened to her in the future first… after all future Dean had been quite insistent that she not be seen by survivors. Chuck – surprisingly – was the first to speak, after doing an uncanny impression of a fish out of water first. "F-Faythe?" he gasped "but you're, you…."

"Uh… I'm Faythe from 2009… I think you already met past Dean?" she frowned holding hands up in a surrender motion.

"Oh" Chuck looked a little relived, and then moved in for a hug before he hesitated "do you-?" Faythe stopped his question by hugging him. He was a pretty sweet guy and she liked him enough to do so.

Future Castiel was still staring at her with wide eyes, his lips slightly open in shock even after she had finished hugging Chuck. Faythe felt a little awkward about his staring and asked jokingly "do you want a hug too, feathers?"

His response was not what she thought it would be. Rather than even say anything he just shut his mouth, turned around and walked off deeper into the forest leaving Chuck and Faythe behind. She stared after him with a troubled frown. She and the angel had started a somewhat strange friendship in her time – one that revolved around beating the crap out of each other for training and tension relief she was sure – but his reaction had felt more… angry. Had her future self done something to hurt him?

"It's not your fault" Chuck seemed to know what she was thinking.

"What did I do?" she frowned at the curly haired prophet "I mean future me, I assume I did something?"

Chuck shifted a little awkwardly "yeah you…uh…you died."

"Oh" Faythe felt a little awkward now too, but still tried to joke "well… I guess that's why future Dean didn't want me walking around, people would try blasting me with rock salt…"

Chuck didn't laugh, didn't even smile, just frowned and gave her a worried expression "I think that would be the – uh – least of your problems if someone else saw you…"

She frowned, worried now. "Why?" he voice was sharp.

Chuck gave her a frightened look – she didn't know why, she'd never lay a finger on him – and explained "uh…you might have been a bit… before you died you, uh…"

" _What_ , Chuck, what did I do?"

"Nothing!" he replied in a squeak "you did nothing, nothing but be the best damn hunter in the fight against Lucifer… only you were so good it actually kind of scared everyone…"

"I did?" that didn't sound really bad…

"Yeah… and –uh- you kind of built a reputation against demons for being ruthless… and then you died."

"How?" she tilted her head, still not sure how this tied in with Cas's reaction to her.

"In Detroit…" Chuck sighed "you pushed Castiel out of the way and took Lucifer's shot yourself. I don't think he ever forgave you or himself for it…"

" _Oh_ " she looked to where the angel had disappeared. Surely he knew, even in their limited interactions from her time line so far, that he couldn't _make_ her do anything? Obviously if she sacrificed herself for him than it was her choice to do so. Blaming himself was just stupid… she glanced at Chuck.

The little prophet finally gave a slight smile "there's a lake if you keep walking that way. He'll be sitting on a rock."

"Thanks" she ran off after the angel.

* * *

Faythe found Castiel exactly where Chuck said he would be. He sat with one knee up, an arm draped carelessly over it, while one leg hung down lazily. She didn't bother saying anything, she knew from the way his jaw twitched and his tense posture that she was there. Instead she searched on the rocky lake shore for a flat rock and when she found one she tossed it into the lake with a careful flick of her wrist. The stone skipped six times before disappearing under the surface of the water.

She looked for another stone, all the while they said nothing to each other. Not until Faythe found another satisfyingly smooth rock and held it in her hand before looking at Castiel. Apparently he'd been looking at her too because his head snapped back around when she looked at him and the smirk that she'd caught on his face dropped immediately. "So…uh… Chuck told me what happened" she said a little nervously, concerned about his reaction. It was obviously just from looking at him that this was not the Castiel she knew.

Cas it appeared had no wish to speak of her death, instead he said in a hard voice "I understand why Zachariah would send Dean back. But why you?"

Faythe came to stand beside the rock and shrugged "he's still trying to get me to work for him… I guess he thinks there's something here that'll get me on his payroll."

"Don't" Castiel gave her a sharp look "don't you dare agree to work for him Faythe, no matter what you see here."

"I wasn't planning to" she smirked at him "I already see far too much of Zachariah now thank you very much."

He gave her a look "you never told me that…"

She shrugged "in 2009 we don't really speak… we do fight a lot, you landed quite a hit on my shoulder. It still hurts and its years later" she winked at him, tugging down her shirt to show him the mottled bruise.

He actually smiled a little at that, leaning a little closer to her. "I remember those lessons… you were still scared I'd turn and kill you. I'm sorry if that hurts… want me to kiss it better?" he smirked at her playfully – though his eyes still looked quite sad – and she gave him an incredulous, shocked look.

"The Castiel from my time would never offer to kiss my bruises better" she replied with a bit of a nervous giggle – she'd be lying to say she hadn't felt a flutter at his offer.

He actually leaned down and pressed his slightly shaped lips to her skin. It hurt a little from even the slightest pressure but sent an odd thrill to her toes making them curl in her boots as he gave her a sincerely sad look and said "well… I should have."

Faythe was starting to feel a bit nervous now, wanting to back away from intimate moments. She cleared her throat and instead glanced at him and said "Chuck told me I died saving you feathers. He said you blame both yourself and me for it. I want you to stop."

His expression hardened and he leaned away from her again turning his blue gaze to the black water of the lake instead. "I can't… but let me give you some advice. If when you go back to your time, you still end up facing Lucifer in Detroit… _don't_ try to save me. It was a mute effort considering he blew me apart anyway after you, only I came back… and you didn't… so just don't be a hero."

"Okay… alright I promise I won't be a hero" she was actually quite alarmed at the unidentifiable note in his voice, but he seemed to be appeased at her promise and the tension in his shoulders relaxed again. After a few moments of silence Faythe muttered "I really don't think it's fair that you got brought back and I didn't mind…"

Surprisingly he laughed, thought it wasn't a nice laugh, and he replied "ha, yes well… I believe it was my punishment for not stopping Lucifer."

"What?" she frowned "to live an apparently crummy life blaming my death on yourself?"

"No… just to live without you" he replied softly, almost too softly for her to hear over the gentle sound of the lake water.

She threw him a glance, a bit troubled by all this emotion he was showing her. She was only used to so much emotion from the angel – and mostly that emotion was confusion – but obviously things between them had changed, she just hadn't lived it yet. She decided not to ask any more questions however – what was life without surprises after all? Instead she passed him the smooth rock in her hand and asked "can you skip a stone then feathers?"

He stood, tossing the rock between his hands "my record it seventeen."

She smiled "show me."

* * *

Faythe and Dean re-woke in the motel in 2009 with a start. Last either of them had been aware they'd been with the future selves about to face off on Lucifer… well Dean had gone to face off on Lucifer and Faythe had gone to try and stop everyone else from going on a suicide mission on the orders of future Dean. She promised herself that if Dean ever did become like that in the future (and she survived to see it) that she'd be the first person to kick his sorry ass.

Of course Zachariah was waiting for them to wake, flicking through a magazine like he hadn't a care in the world when he had specifically quite one big care. Dean got it first obviously, the questioning about the future, and then the ass-angel turned his attention on her. "And you?" he asked, eyes all but popping out of his sockets "did you see enough to agree yet? Surely you saw that your…talents would be put to far better use when actually directed at the right targets rather than picking off demons where you find them?"

"I saw a whole load of stuff" Faythe replied, folding her arms and glaring "but there's only one thing I'm gonna do differently, and it aint gonna be allowing you to use me as your personal errand girl."

A vein on Zachariah's head looked about ready to explode. "You lack respect, girl."

"I've been told that by angels before" she replied.

The angel gave her a withering look and turned back to Dean, questioning him about Michael and saying yes. She hoped this would be the end of Zachariah asking her to work for him, and watched proudly as Dean continued to say no to Michael… Zachariah was starting to get threatening, Faythe tensing and twitched a hand for her angel blade, when both she and Dean felt a funny tug on their collars and suddenly they were both standing on the edge of the road somewhere, nowhere near Zachariah or the motel.

Faythe, being a bit dazed from nearly getting hit by a truck, didn't even notice Castiel was the one who had hauled them away from Zachariah until Dean was on the phone. She turned to him with a grin, kind of happy to see the angel version of Castiel again. He tilted his head at her, a puzzled look on his face, before she suddenly jumped and hugged him. He held his arms stiffy, a bit confused, before he patted her back a little gingerly. Yeah, definitely different from the man who offered to kiss her bruises better. She looked up at him, still hugging, finding quite a nervous expression on his usually blank face. "Dean's right Cas, don't ever change. I like you much better this way."

"Oh…uh…thank you."

Dean got off the phone and turned to find them in an awkward embrace. He couldn't help but grin a little at the look on the angels face. "Uh… you want me to give you two a minute?"

 **XxX**

Taking that photograph and Bobby's felt like a bad omen. Faythe had been nervous but enjoying herself, Jo's company was very welcome as was Ellen's. She'd met them briefly one and liked the women immediately. With them she could joke at the boy's expense in secret and it frustrated Sam and Dean immensely when they would laugh without saying why. It was also amusing to see Ellen rope Castiel into a drinking game – one of them was going end up wrecked, unfortunately it was unlikely to be the angel.

When Bobby arranged for them to be in a photo, Faythe felt a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. Dread. She stood a little behind Castiel in the photo, glancing at Sam right before the photo was taken and saw a kind of sadness in his eyes too. Did he feel that odd bad feeling? She didn't ask. They were going after Lucifer the next morning, better to stay merry than to talk about bad feelings…

Still, she and Cas rode with Ellen and Jo to the town. Better to give the boys a bit of a private moment considering Lucifer really wanted to jump Sam's bones. On the ride Jo and Faythe sang really bad karaoke to old rock songs but there was a nervous quiver in their voices. Castiel glanced at Faythe a few times, able to tell the smile on her face was not genuine. When they arrived in the town Castiel wasn't the only one who could see the reapers. They were everywhere. Cas took off alone winding his way through reapers and Faythe bit her lip. "I'm going to help him with the reapers… we should split off alone" she told Jo and Ellen, and they seemed to agree.

But rather than follow Castiel – who'd promptly disappeared anyway – she teleported to the highest roof she could find. There where reapers there too… and one of them she recognised. "Tim?" she frowned approaching a particular reaper whose tie was a bit askew compared to the others. Reapers where funny things, able to manipulate the way they are perceived, but somehow she always recognised Tim. He was one of the first supernatural creatures she'd met with she was six, just by chance of course. She remembered her mother had thought he was simply an imaginary friend. If only she'd known her daughters first friend was a reaper…

Tim didn't move more than a slight tilt of his head "Faythe… it's been a very long time."

"Yeah…" she approached him slowly "last I saw you, you where reaping my mother."

"Regrettable, but life is fleeting" he ducked his head slightly.

She cocked an eyebrow at him "true, I never blamed you if that's what you're thinking by the way. It was just your job. So… you here for the raising of the boss?"

"Why else?" he finally looked at her with those deep eyes all reapers have "are you here to stop his raising?"

"I'm here to stop Lucifer… if death is released before or after that fact we shall see."

His lips tugged "you were always very good at a political answer, even as a child."

"Funny" she sighed "I've been told I am rude, impolite and disrespectful but not political."

"You are all those things too" the reaper gave a slight nod "but you were always destined to be a hunter, and those things will either help you survive or help you die… considering you stand before me with a beating heart I assume it is the former."

"I guess" she looked out across the town, able to see reapers everywhere "are you guys going to stop us trying to kill Lucifer?"

Tim said nothing for a moment, and then said "no."

Faythe nodded, wanting to ask more but a sinister howl and aggressive barking reached her ears just as she heard gunshots. Her eyes widened and she looked at Tim "Hellhounds?"

"Apparently. You should go help your friends" he replied softly – soft enough that she had a very bad feeling.

Faythe reappeared with the boys, her angel blade already out, running with them and slashing at a hellhound as it jumped. Perhaps it was a good thing they couldn't see these grotesque beasts. She kind of wished she couldn't see them. Still she slit ones throat as it leapt for them giving the others time to hole up inside a shop. She dove in just as Dean and Sam where pouring rock salt over the doorway.

Then she saw Jo on the ground. Faythe pulled off her thin jumper and heled Ellen hold it against Jo's wounded side, trying not to look. Ellen gave he a desperate look "can you heal her?" she asked, hopeful.

"I-I'm sorry…" Faythe felt horribly helpless quite suddenly "I can only heal mild would this… this is beyond my pay grade. Where's Cas?"

"I thought he was with you?" Dean growled from where he prowled by the windows making sure everything was locked and salted.

"He split, following something…" she grimaced "I did talk with a reaper though. They aren't going to stop us hunting Lucifer."

"Alright, good" Dean nodded "can you find Cas?"

"Sure… you going to be okay without me?" she hesitated.

Sam looked at her, then out of the window again "you can see them… how many?"

"Hounds?" she asked coming to stand near him "a pack, I can see four but there might be more and we've killed two."

"Okay… right I think we should be fine for now. Just get Cas here so he can help Jo and we'll get moving." Dean said casting sad eyes on Jo and Ellen on the floor. Faythe could understand his sadness… if she couldn't find Castiel, it was unlikely Jo would survive her wounds…

She vanished with a blink, trying to concentrate on Castiel's location.

* * *

It took hours for Faythe to track down Castiel, something cut off her ability to accurately track him down and she was stuck manually searching for the angel while avoiding hellhounds. It was getting dark when she finally found him – she actually spotted through a small window a glimpse of fire and had a good idea that he would be there. She concentrated hard enough to nearly give herself a migraine, and finally teleporting to him worked, but the angel didn't look that happy to see her… or maybe it was because he was quite obviously trapped in a ring of holy fire. It was just luck that she'd managed to land inside the flames too, and not on top of them. "Faythe" his voice was more of a growl than she'd ever heard it before.

"Well… I admit that is new" a voice said, and Faythe felt the hair on her neck raise and she half turned and found a man watching keenly from the other side of the flames, one side of his face mottled with crater-like red marks and if he had been human she'd say his sickly skin was obviously wrong. If he had been human of course.

"Holy shit batman" she found herself saying with wide eyes as she glanced at Castiel "is that-?"

"Lucifer" Castiel asked, his voice still a growl "yes."

A woman with dark hair was also standing with Lucifer – she had widened her eyes and took a step back at Faythe's appearance, but now her eyes narrowed and she pulled a snarl on her face. "You" she growled at Faythe.

Faythe frowned but decided to shrug and reply "me?" after all she'd hunted a lot of demons, she didn't recognise them all. Hell she was just glad that while she could see some unseen things – like hellhounds and reapers – that she couldn't see demons true faces until they were dying. Ugly buggers.

"You know this one?" Lucifer looked at Meg.

"Oh yes" Meg looked like she wanted nothing more than to go a few rounds with Faythe but she obediently stayed behind Lucifer "until a few years ago she was little more than a myth even to demons, and then she started working with the Winchesters…"

"I was a myth? Really?" Faythe grinned and a little nervous giggle escaped her which made Castiel give her a weird look "sorry, not a laughing time but I find that pretty cool."

Lucifer was looking at her like she was something on display in a zoo, which had Faythe twitching for her blade though she knew taking on Lucifer was as above her paygrade as Zachariah was so she kept throwing her glances at Castiel instead. He was watching her too, though from the tense readiness in his shoulders – something she'd become used to during their little fights – he was more ready to grab her should she try attack. Good, because if things went real bad she wasn't altogether sure she wouldn't try attack. Her flight or fight response was broken.

"How strange…" Lucifer said after a while, a smile growing on his face "I believe someone has managed to combine the powers of a demon and an angel in you… all that power, and you only hunt monsters? What a waste…"

Faythe scowled at him "I guess it depends on your definition of a waste."

"Ah, yes…well…" Lucifer shrugged "I could offer you power beyond your dreams should you work for me…"

Faythe snorted "you're not the first angel to offer me that, and I don't want power, so I'll tell you what I told your brother – I don't work for angels."

Lucifer smirked "yet here you are obviously here for my little brother, Castiel."

Faythe frowned and glanced at Castiel before looking back at Lucifer "I-don't… he's my friend, not my boss."

Lucifer gave a slow smile "Isn't he? I doubt he would accept orders from a half-breed."

"Faythe…" Castiel tried to speak.

"Hang on there, feathers" she cut him off with a look and though he tilted his head at her again curiously he let her speak to Lucifer "so the devil hasn't heard of teamwork has he? Shocker. Look Cas doesn't take my order and I don't take his. We work together, surprisingly well considering."

Lucifer simply seemed amused however "what a waste for you both. Though I admire your loyalty…however, time's up and I have a date with death. Don't wait up."

Lucifer left the room, Meg followed him though she lingered at the doorway apparently speaking with some other demons. In that moment Castiel grabbed Faythe by the shoulders and span her around to face him completely. "What are you doing?" he asked in a hard voice.

"Dean sent me to find you…"

"Go back, tell them to get out of here."

"We can't get out of here" she frowned at him "Cas there's hellhounds everywhere, one of them got Jo. She's hurt real bad, it's more than I can heal by myself… I don't think we can move her."

Castiel let out a frustrated sigh and let go of her shoulders. Faythe understood how he felt and ran a hand through her hair, throwing a glance at the demons at the doorway still discussing something… "Faythe" Cas brought her attention back to him "go help Sam and Dean… I can get out of this, and it's probably best you don't stick around. I think that demon has a grudge against you."

"You think?" Faythe snorted, then relaxed and gave him a small worried look. She'd been feeling a bit more protective of the angel ever since her trip forward in time to meet the kind of man he could become… she didn't want him to become the drug using drunk hippie with a guilt complex about her death. She was sure he could sense something different in her attitude towards him since that trip – she hadn't told him anything about it – but he didn't ask, not yet at least. "Are you completely sure you'll come out of this in one piece feathers?"

"I am… confident."

"All right then" she saw the female demon coming back to them, a nasty smirk on her face. "Good luck feathers."

"You're both going to need it" the demon growled.

"Yeah funny thing…" Faythe stepped over the line of holy fire "this thing doesn't actually hold me. Toodles." She vanished, though she was sure she heard a frustrated yell as she left.

She reappeared on the side of a street in time to get blown sideways by an explosion. Horribly disorientate and her ears ringing Faythe felt hands grab her arms and drag her somewhere dark away from the heat of fire. It took a few minutes for her vision to refocus and her ears to stop being fuzzy but eventually she looked up at Sam and Dean from the hard alley floor and asked "what the hell was _that_?"

They didn't answer, just watched as she pulled herself up the brick wall and Dean said "we have to get out of here…"

Faythe looked around "Dean… where- where are Jo and Ellen… did they get out?"

The brothers didn't look at her. Faythe looked around the wall at the fire, which she now realised was the hardware store she'd left them at… for a second she felt horrible guilt and sadness building in the pit of her stomach making herself feel sick… and then she pulled her lips back in a snarl and stood up straighter, fisting her hands so tight she felt her own hard nails dig into her skin painfully. She looked back at Sam and Dean who were finally looking at her again. Without speaking all three of them started to run.

"Did you find Cas?" Dean asked once they had gotten out of the town. It was the first thing he'd said since she reappeared.

Faythe had her angel blade out, she told herself it was for readiness in case the devil popped out of somewhere but really she knew it was more like a security blanket, and she glanced at Dean. "Lucifer had him trapped with Holy fire. He said he has a plan though."

"Right…" Dean didn't sound too happy. Faythe wasn't happy either and didn't say much of anything as they waited, prepared to kill Lucifer.

Of course it didn't quite go to plan.

Dean shot the devil and the devil got back up, slamming his fist into Dean and sending him flying straight into Faythe. Not that the momentum of his punch stopped with Faythe. Instead the force even managed to pick up Faythe and both she and Dean went flying into a tree. Dean was the only one to end up unconscious, though Faythe was pretty certain she had some cracked ribs. She coughed hackingly into her own fist and spat blood onto her hand. Maybe more than a few cracked ribs.

Lucifer went back to raising Death and Sam came over to check on Faythe and Dean. It took some shoving but eventually they got Dean awake and off Faythe's chest. "You okay?" Sam asked them both.

"Fine" Dean said.

"I'll –"Faythe coughed again "yeah, I'll live."

Castiel appeared beside them pressing a finger to his lips. She wasn't going to deny it she was bloody glad to see him. He seemed to realise she was in no position to transport herself and he took her with him and the two boys back to Bobby's. They all landed on his floor with a slight 'thump' which made Faythe cough a bit more. Bobby seemed surprised, though when he realised they were two short than when they left an understanding sad look passed his face.

* * *

Sam, Dean and Bobby where mourning Ellen and Jo. Faythe knew this, but she hadn't joined them inside. Instead she was outside lost in the maze of Bobby's rundown cars. It was night time so she had found a particularly comfy looking car and sat on its hood with her face upturned to stare at the stars. She just hoped Ellen and Jo where somewhere happier.

Faythe coughed again, her ribs felt like they were splintering and she pulled her hand away to find more blood. She hadn't let the boys know she was injured. They needed their time to grieve. She did vaguely wonder about disappearing to a hospital but if she tried teleporting while injured and tired as she was she wasn't sure she'd still be conscious when she arrived at the hospital.

She lay back on the broken glass of the car again and stared up at the sky.

She heard a pebble move under someone's foot as they approached. "Why are you not inside grieving with everyone else?" Castiel asked.

Faythe lifted her head to look at him. He looked haggard even for an angel. "I thought I'd give them a little space. I didn't know Jo and Ellen very well." She replied.

Castiel suddenly appeared on the hood of the car beside her, sitting with his knees pulled up a bit and his arms draped across them. He stared at her. "It has nothing to do with the fact you are injured?"

 _Damn clever angel_ … she smirked "yeah okay, a little bit. I don't want them to worry about me at a time like this."

Castiel tilted his head at her, though she couldn't read the expression on his face. After a few seconds he reached up suddenly and pressed two fingers to her head "here" he said as she felt warmth spread through her body focusing on her chest. When he removed his touch the warmth linger for a little while, tickling, but she no longer felt in pain.

Faythe smiled "thanks Castiel, but I thought you didn't have enough juice to keep healing us up all the time?"

He gave a very slight smile and said "I can make exceptions."

"Well…I'm flattered, but I'll try extra hard not to get hurt again. I think it'd be better if you weren't wasting your mojo on me."

For a while they sat there in silence, and then Castiel cleared his throat prepared to ask her something that had bothered him for a few days now. "Um…Faythe. I feel as though you have been acting strangely around me lately."

She sighed "yes, I suppose I have. Don't worry, it's not a bad thing and it's nothing you did…well…not this you."

"Ah" he nodded "I had considered it might be something from your brief visit to the future."

"I bet it was a big clue, me and Dean pretty much begging you never to change. We were serious about that feathers, we like you just the way you are… lacking sense of humour and all."

"Well I am glad… I do not foresee a large change for myself in the future."

"Never say that out loud Cas, you'll jinx it" she sighed.

"I…I don't understand that."

"I mean if you say it out loud then the opposite will happen. It's like saying 'I've never been sick' and then the next day you end up sick."

"Oh, so you mean if I say I will _not_ change then I _will_ change?"

"Yeah" she smiled at him "sounds ridiculously complicated out loud, but that's the gist."

"Then in the future I shall try not to – uh – jinx it" he smiled at her, then looked up at the stars before asking "if you do not mind my curiosity but what did you see in the future that has you act so differently? Dean has told me what he saw, and he says you spent a lot of time with my future self."

"Yeah… we skipped stones you and me on the shores of the apocalypse survivor's lake" she smiled at the memory.

"What is skipping stones?"

She gave him a sideways glance "I'll teach you next time we're at a lake."

"I think I would like that. What else did you see in the future?"

Faythe hesitated, and answered without looking at him. "I didn't see much but we talked you and I… and…"

"And?"

"And… look, I don't want to tell you everything but let's just say if we end up facing down Lucifer together in Detroit and I don't act how I might normally… it's because I have it on good authority not to act like myself…"

He gave her a puzzled look but nodded just once "I shall try keep this in mind."

"Good… I'd hate to have the only angel I like mad at me."

He tilted his head at first, a crooked grin tugging at his lips "I thought you didn't trust me, let alone like me Faythe?"

"That was a few weeks ago feathers" she reclined back all the way against the car until she was lying down "feelings change quite quickly. You can still scare the crap out of me sometimes but yeah I like you."

He seemed please "I enjoy your company too Faythe…maybe it is because you are the closest to another angel I have come since rebelling."

She gave him a look but didn't say anything. He probably didn't even know he'd just ruined a very nice thing to say. Instead she looked back up at the stars and asked softly "do you think Ellen and Jo went to heaven?"

There was silence for a long time after she asked, the only noise being the sound of their breathing and crickets in the scrap yard. Castiel had turned his face to the stars too, and seemed to be giving her question a great deal of contemplation. Faythe liked that, so many other people would have answered without a thought, but the angel actually took the time to consider. "I believe so, yes" he finally replied.

Faythe let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding and smiled "good."

* * *

 _Yeah this chapter took a long time to do, it just annoyed me so much I kept re-writing it. Mostly because I was thinking about future chapter plots so the next chapters should be out a lot faster._


	5. Chapter Four

**_Summary:_** _Takes place during Season 6 episode "Two and a Half men" and an in-between episode story at the end of the season in which Faythe meets Balthazar._

* * *

 **CHAPTER FOUR**

When Sam jumped into the pit dragging Lucifer and Michael with him, everyone was effected. The entire world of course, hell and heaven all because the Apocalypse had stopped. Then there was a handful of people personally effected. Dean for one was of course heavily effected, having been to hell himself he could only imagine what Sam was going through in the cage. Of course he kept his promise and gave up hunting to live with old flame Lisa and her son Ben. Bobby was also effected and threw himself into hunting. Castiel went back to heaven to try restore order to the angels who'd just lost their leader. Faythe?

Faythe found herself suddenly alone again, after nearly two years travelling and hunting with friends she actually found herself horribly lonely… once or twice she found herself a few blocks from Dean's new home with Lisa. She never let him see her though, she understood why he wanted out of the job. She did however take care of a werewolf and three hauntings in his local area before he could detect anything supernatural. She could give him a normal environment at least.

Occasionally she dropped by to see Bobby. Mostly he would offer her a drink then send her on a hunt and eventually she stopped even that. If only going back to her old way of life when she had been alone was easy though. Her association with the Winchesters made her quite well known amongst demons and angels now and she found herself fighting them more and more often. Well, she only came across one angel but still… Castiel's lessons in fighting certainly came in handy.

Still just as Faythe was getting used to being alone again everything went tits up and she got a phone call from Dean. For some reason he gave her a list of baby supplies to gather from him and asked her to meet at a motel. She did as he asked – more out of curiosity than anything – and met him at the motel.

She looked at Dean walking around the room with a screaming baby in his arms. Sam was sitting at a table behind them trying to read some police files with his hands over his ears. Dean looked relived when he saw her. "Oh thank god!" he breathed "think you could make Junior here some dinner?"

After a second longer staring Faythe began preparing a bottle for the baby, but she couldn't help asking "do you two just attract weird things or do you look for this kind of crap?"

"What can I say? We're irresistible to all things weird" Dean snapped "is that bottle ready?"

"Give me a bloody second" she growled, testing the temperature of the bottle on herself satisfied it wasn't too hot. She went to hand the bottle to Dean at the same time he put the baby in her arms. Faythe ended up standing there bottle feeding a baby and feeling well out of her element as Dean fell backwards on the bed looking relived.

"Silence?" Sam looked up, removing his hands from his ears "I thought for a second I'd gone deaf."

"I'll make you go deaf in a second…" Faythe muttered, leaning against the wall as the baby continued to drain the bottle. How long had it been since this kid ate?

Dean sat up a little bit, looking at Faythe. He looked different to him and it took a second to realise it was because her features seemed a little sharper, and she was thinner than he remembered, and there was a thin white scar on her jaw that hadn't been there a year ago. He looked between her and Sam and said in a resigned tone "so I guess you also knew Sam was back and didn't tell me about it?"

Faythe threw him a look "don't be irritated. It wasn't the best reunion, and I've only known for a few weeks. Have you met those cousins of yours?"

"Yeah?"

"Well your family doesn't really like me Dean. I'm not human remember? Doesn't matter if I'm a hunter apparently."

"How'd they even know _what_ you where?"

Faythe looked at Sam, who just sat there. He didn't even look guilty. Dean scowled "you told them about Faythe?"

"What?" Sam frowned "they're trustworthy, Dean. And they don't want to hunt you Faythe, they just want to know more about you…"

"They want to know my weaknesses" she snapped- which cause the baby in her arms to give a slight cry and burp before he started drinking the bottle again. They were all silent for a few seconds watching to make sure the infant didn't stir anymore before Dean looked at Sam with a frown.

"You'd have told them Faythe's weaknesses if you knew them?" he asked his little brother.

"What? No!"

Dean still frowned and glanced at Faythe. She didn't look so sure of Sam's answer either, but neither of them said anything. The baby finished nursing and Faythe burped him over her shoulder with ease before she handed him back to Dean. "I feed, but you are on code brown" she told him, watching his confused expression melt into one of horror when he realised what she meant. He didn't argue though, and Faythe sat opposite Sam at the table. "So, one of you going to tell me why you've suddenly got a mini-me?"

"Shapeshifter, been killing families and kidnapping babies" Sam said giving her the fastest explanation "that one I found, only the Shapeshifter found us and tried to take him."

"What does a Shapeshifter want with…?" Faythe muttered leaning back against the chair thinking. Neither brother tried to answer her, and she was a bit more amused watching Dean try change a diaper. Still he wasn't half as hopeless with the baby as she expected him to be, obviously living with Lisa and Ben had taught him a few things, and he even managed to get the cranky infant to sleep. Of course finally having a clean diaper and full stomach might also have had something to do with that. Sam commented on this too, and Faythe kept her head down silent as he pointed out Dean was becoming like their father. When Sam realised one of the fathers had survived an attack by not being present he took off – he asked Faythe if she wanted to come but she declined and ended up staying behind with Dean and junior.

The baby stirred as Sam left and Dean let him have a taste of his drink – which Faythe threw a pillow at him for. Eventually baby Bobby John (Dean so kindly informed her of the name when she asked) actually went to sleep she and Dean relaxed on the beds. Dean watched as Faythe yawned, noticing dark bags under her eyes.

"You look like shit" he informed her lazily.

"You're such a flatterer Dean" she replied in a drawl, then glanced at him "so, how're Lisa and Ben?"

"A bit freaked after a Djin incident, and then there's Sam suddenly back from the pit…"

"Ah, well. I'm sure they'll be fine." Faythe smiled kindly at him.

"So what've you been doing the last year?"

"Hunting. I'm not exactly the…uh…normal living kind of girl" Faythe shrugged "not that I didn't try of course, but you know I haven't even got a birth certificate. Technically I don't exist."

"Bobby could've faked-"

"-Bobby's already being my fake FBI, CIA or whatever associated boss. I wasn't going to ask him for more."

Dean ducked his head and nodded "well, it's good to see you in one piece… well, almost. What gave you that scar?" he pointed to his own jaw to indicate the sliver of pale on her own jaw.

She met his eyes, and gave him a hard look as she said "an angel."

"It wasn't…"

"Castiel?" she laughed a little "no, I haven't seen him since he told me he was going back to heaven…"

"He told you?" Dean raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah?" she frowned "he told you too, he said he did."

"Yeah, he vanished very abruptly in the middle of a sucky goodbye. I assume to say goodbye to you."

"Well…good. I would've been worried if he just vanished."

"Yeah, you'd be so worried about the little angel…" Dean smirked.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothin'. I just kind of assumed that you and Cas…" he made a crude gesture and wriggled his eyebrows.

Faythe couldn't help but laugh and chucked a pillow at Dean, satisfied it hit him in the face "don't be so rude. We were friends, nothing more."

"Yeah" Dean laughed " _friends_. Oooh, this bed has magic fingers. You have a quarter?"

Faythe rolled her eyes, dug around her trouser pockets and chucked a few quarters at Dean. He didn't even seem to care that a few of the coins bounced off his head, he shoved them straight into the magic finger machine and relaxed against the bed. "So why didn't you go with Sammy?" he asked, voice vibrating slightly.

Faythe didn't say anything for a minute, finally saying "Sam's…he just doesn't seem the same. I mean I know the pit can change people but… when I met the Campbells he wasn't really concerned about there, uh, less than comforting curiosity with my limitations."

"You don't trust him?" Dean sat up on his elbows a little.

"Dean-"she hesitated "-no offence but I limit my trust of everyone after the year I've had. It's been a bit hectic hunting wise and I'm really not the best friend of angels and demons. Before I helped you two stop the apocalypse I was little more than a rumour among demons. Now they know my name, and hunt me."

Dean winced "damn… well, you want my advice?"

"Go ahead."

Dean winked at her, leaned over to her side of the motel bed and slipped a quarter into the magic finger machine. "Lie back and think of England" he grinned, lying down again. Faythe couldn't help but smile, lie down and enjoy the vibrations too.

* * *

When Faythe and Dean heard the bizarre splatter noise they sat up and frowned at each other, then looked to the crib where baby Bobby John was crying. As they were getting up Dean's phone rang. He answered it to Sam even as Faythe reached toe rib, her eyes widened and she put a hand over her mouth in surprise. Sam told Dean he thought the shapeshifter was the father of the baby even as Dean reached the crib looking down at the child that had just changed ethnicity to match the picture of a baby on the diaper box. Dean lifted him up, eyes widening and stared at Faythe. She could only shrug.

Dean hunt up on Sam and they focused on the baby instead. Poor kid was wailing horribly, Faythe could almost feel his confusion. He'd probably never changed skin before and she imagined it was quite painful especially for a baby. The wailing seemed to attract the motel manager, and he wasn't leaving… the door handle began to jiggle. Dean and Faythe exchanged dark looks, he handed her the baby and she crouched down behind the crib holding the baby to her gently. He stopped crying then, chewing on his own fist. Faythe decided right then that babies where strange. Dean hid behind the corner in time for the door to burst open. Dean leaped on the shapeshifter, in the form of a police officer, they struggled and Dean was thrown back a bit. In reaction Faythe forgot she was holding the child and stood, the shapeshifters gaze landing on her and the child.

"Get out of the way" the shapeshifter growled at Dean, its gaze flickering between him and the baby.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen."

"That child-"the shifter pointed "-should be with his father."

Dean smirked "Wow, I gotta be honest. I'm not really seeing the family resemblance."

"I'm not just talking about me. I'm talking about _our_ father."

There was a tense moment where Dean frowned in confusion before the shapeshifter leapt forward to attack again. Dean grabbed at him, glancing behind him and Faythe "get the kid out!" he growled as the shapeshifter swung a punch.

Faythe wasn't worried about Dean so she did as he asked and she vanished from the motel room. She actually reappeared in the women's bathroom outside holding the very confusing looking baby in her arms. "Hey there Bobby John" she ran a hand gently over his fluffy new hair "well done on your first teleport. Dean says he didn't poop for a week after a friend out ours did it to him so you may experience some discomfort. Please however wait until you're in their care and not mine before you complain. My baby experience is…limited." Faythe frowned at her self holding the child in the mirror. It had been years since she'd handled a baby… hell she'd only been a kid herself at the time. She didn't think her mother or herself had really counted on little siblings…

Faythe shook herself from those thoughts and moved to the door, looking out through a small gap. Ah, she saw Sam and Dean coming out of the motel room in a hurry. She slipped out of the bathroom and waved at them. They waved her over to the car in a hurry and they were peeling out of the lot before she'd even completely clipped Bobby John into the car seat.

* * *

Faythe was quiet in the back seat as the boys discussed the case, how the shapeshifter was getting the women pregnant with shifter babies and coming back for them, but when they came to the child's future and Sam suggested his grandfather Samuel she stiffened tensely. Dean didn't look overjoyed with that plan either and tried to argue against taking the baby to hunters.

"Pitch a better idea then" Sam demanded of Dean.

Dean actually glanced into the backseat and looked at her "Faythe?"

"Faythe?" Sam frowned "what does she know about raising kids?"

"Hey" Faythe growled at him "you might be driving Sam but I am not above slapping you right now. I did have a little sister you know."

"You did?" Dean's eyebrows raised "I didn't know that…"

"Well I don't like to talk about it since I had to _abandon_ her at a church Dean…" Faythe's voice was full of bitterness as she watched the baby play with her rosary beads she'd tied around her wrist. Neither boy said anything either, not until she sighed and said "he can't stay with me Dean, I told you I have demons on my tail. Half the time I don't know if I'm going to come home."

Dean nodded and sighed twisting back around to face the front again. "Great! Samuel, it is."

* * *

In the Campbell compound Dean stood with Bobby John in his arms at the centre of the room. Faythe stood close at his right side, tense and her fingers twitching just itching to grab her blade. The woman, Gwen, approached. Faythe gave her a wary look, she got a very clear feeling that Gwen was loyal to Samuel and would likely harm the baby if he told her too.

"Well aren't you just the best disguise a monster ever wore?" Gwen cooed at the baby, then looked at Dean's scowl "I'm kidding, Dean. Relax."

Mark entered the room, standing just a little in front of Dean. The quiet man was a little weird. Dean continued to scowl at him "What, you got something to say? No? Alright, well, you stand there and think at me."

Gwen spotted Faythe and her expression changed "Faythe… isn't it nice to see you again."

"Wish I could say the same."

"You still sore about that trick we pulled with the devils trap?" Gwen asked.

"I'm more irritated that every time we meet you all try pull some crap to make me demonstrate my abilities. Sam's already told you enough."

"Well you have to admit you are an interesting mix of monsters…"

Faythe tensed even further, her muscles almost painful with it, and scowled "I'm not a monster. Demons aren't afraid of monsters. I'm more like a nightmare really."

Sam and Samuel entered the room, cutting off any more talk from Gwen and Faythe – luckily because Dean looked like he'd been about to interrupt.

Faythe was as concerned about Samuels plan to raise the baby as a hunter as Dean was.

Besides the fact it was unfair to raise a baby with hunters and expect him to know any other life aside from hunting there was he issues with the tools. The baby wouldn't be able to use silver weapons as an adult of course. How could he be a good hunter with at least three of ten monsters require silver weapons to kill? She shook her head of those thoughts though. That was the least of the problems, the others being that Samuel was giving the baby to Christian who was, without doubts, a dick.

Faythe was almost glad when the adult shifter stormed in. An alpha, she'd heard of them – especially in the last few months – but never seen one. She just watched as they fought it, Sam and Dean taking the baby to a panic room downstairs, she saw the strength in it as it overcame everything the Campbells through – and she got some interesting information, what did Samuel need a silver net for?

The Alpha overpowered the Campbells pretty easy. She checked, they were alive… well aside from Mark. When the Alpha came back upstairs he had the baby. He reached the door of the compound before Faythe ran up behind him – "Wait!" she called.

The alpha, wearing Dean's face, turned to her with a kind of curious look. He probably didn't except a hunter to politely ask him to wait. He probably expected her to try plunge a silver dagger into his heart so she actually stopped a few feet short of him with her hands raised in a surrender. "Why do you want the babies?" she asked with a frown and tilt of her head.

The shapeshifter looked at her like she was stupid "they're my children" he replied simply.

"Well okay…" she frowned "but are you going to raise all of them to be murderers?"

The alpha raised a cool eyebrow "I am going to raise them to _survive_. Like any hunter does their children I'm sure. You will understand this when you have children. You are the first of your kind – yes, I know what you are – when you have children you _will_ understand."

Faythe nodded once with a troubled expression and seriously doubting that she'd ever have children in the first place but she understood the alpha's explanation. She let him go, with the baby, and sat out near Sam's car. The compound doors where open so she could hear and see everyone talking but doubted she'd be welcome. She just waited.

When Sam and Dean came out of the compound they were talking. She overheard Dean asking Sam if he'd used the baby as bait for the alpha and she paid a bit more attention to them then. Before he'd gone to the pit she'd never believe Sam capable of something that could potentially harm a baby but since he'd come back… there was something dark about him that she could feel and see in his eyes. When she first noticed it she'd been afraid Lucifer was still inside him somewhere, but she was sure the angel wasn't…

They reached the car, Dean looked a bit troubled. He nodded at her "where'd you get too in there?" he asked.

"I hung back and spoke to the alpha" she replied.

Dean, who'd been about to get into Sam's car, paused and stared at her "you did _what_?"

"What? You were never curious why the alpha wanted the babies so bad?"

"I was more concerned that he'd take Bobby John and make him into a little murderer" Dean replied.

"Not all monsters are killers Dean."

"No?"

"Do you think of me as a killer, or a hunter?" she gave him a challenging glare and folded her arms.

Dean looked at Sam for help but his younger brother could only give him a stare that clearly said he wasn't getting involved. Finally Dean said "No, but your not-"

"-I'm not human Dean, I'm something. But I don't go around killing humans, or even wishing them some kind of malicious intent… okay, I wish malicious intent on some but they deserve it. I've met other monsters Dean, ones who aren't killers. Did you think growing up on the streets I only knew humans? I had a friend who was a werewolf who had us lock her in a cage cemented to the ground ever full moon. Another friend who also lived on the streets was a Banshee."

Dean nodded "right I get it, you don't think that baby will grow to be a murderer?"

"That wasn't the alpha's intent. He wanted to raise him to defend himself, not be a killer. Was your dad any different?"

"Yeah, okay…" Dean nodded and gave her a soft look "damn, I've kind of missed your way of reasoning things."

"So you've not just missed me?" she gave him a playful look.

"Yeah okay, I missed you. Chick flick over now?"

"Yeah okay, chick flick over now. But Dean?" she grinned at him "I missed you too."

 **XxX**

Faythe was – understandably – confused when Dean and Sam passed a message on to her that the angel Balthazar wanted to meet. After all what the hell could he want with her? She was more than a little wary as she tracked Balthazar to a small bar. She ducked inside quickly to get out of the rain and shook her head of water droplets as she entered. She looked around but spotting the angel was easy. He was the cleanest looking person at the bar holding a glass of whisky.

He looked up when she sat down, and waved at the bar man who immediately put down another glass of Whisky in front of Faythe. She nodded thanks at the man but didn't drink it. She wouldn't until she knew what it was Balthazar wanted with her…

They sat there in silence for a little while, Balthazar sipping the amber liquid in his glass pleasantly, and Faythe watched a darts game across the room. Finally the angel smirked at her "you know I have not poisoned that or anything. It'd be a perfect waste not to drink."

Faythe gave him a sidelong look "sorry but I'm kind of used to angels trying to kill me."

"Really?" he looked at her "such as who?"

"Zachariah" she replied off the bat.

"Ah, yes, well… Zachariah tried to kill a lot of people. Don't take it personally."

"I wasn't… don't mean to be rude but why did you want to meet me?" Faythe frowned at him as she finally took a sip of the whisky herself. It slid down her throat left a warm trail as it went.

"Besides the fact that you are a curious combination of angel and demon and quite frankly a pretty sight?" he gave her a crooked grin and Faythe gave him a deadpan expression. He chuckled looking away "I wanted to meet the woman who could make Castiel sulk like an infant."

Faythe perked up a little at the mention of Castiel though she wasn't sure why. She hadn't seen him in a few days. Ironically that was a little while after Dean had called her and told her all about Castiel working with Crowley so naturally she hadn't exactly been welcoming to her friendly neighbourhood angel. She'd all but tore him a new one, indeed they'd had quite the argument about it. Faythe felt bad about it, she knew he was only doing what he thought was best for heaven even if it meant they were now on different sides. What was possibly worse about the fight however was that there had been no raised voices, no violence. It had been a fight where he couldn't seem to quite meet her eye and she couldn't find it in her heart to actually yell at him – not when he'd looked so forlorn at being on the opposite end of the fight to his friends.

"It is not me who made him sulk" she said to Balthazar at last, noticing the amused twinkle in his eyes "his friends are against him, of course he is sulking."

"Ah, of course he is upset about that" Balthazar said, giving her a sly look "but I think you underestimate your importance to my brother."

Faythe turned her full attention on Balthazar now giving him a scrutinising look before asking "Balthazar… did you literally ask Dean to make sure I met you here just so you could try hook me up with your brother even when I am fighting against him at the moment?" she actually had no problem believing Dean would go along with such a ruse.

He chuckled "no, I imagine you have more pride though I couldn't tell you if that was due to the abundance of angelic blood in your veins – I'll be the first to admit my brothers can be a prideful lot."

"I doubt pride is determined by ones blood. Everyone can be a dick about their heritage."

"I'll drink to that truth" he raised his glass.

"I have to say it's nice to hear someone else with a British accent" Faythe smiled as she drank "is that you or your vessel?"

"Both. I always feel the British have very refined tastes, including the accent."

"You realise that's not true?" Faythe gave him an amused look "I did grow up travelling England. The thing about scones is a myth, most people don't use a teapot but they are strangely fascinated with tea… but they can be just as uncouth as the rest of the world."

"I know, but they keep up the façade well." He drained his glass and looked back at her fully "now, I believe I was trying to discuss my brother before you so expertly changed the subject."

"I blame my slight of mouth on the demon blood" she replied smartly.

"Do you also blame that for the wicked tongue I've heard much about?" he smirked.

"I'm not that bad!" she protested with a grin "okay, sarcasm may be my second nature… let's call it a defensive mechanism."

"Is your bark worse than your bite I wonder?"

A rush of wings and a familiar voice said from behind them both "get any closer Balthazar and you might experience both her bark and bite and decide for yourself which is worse."

Balthazar rose his eyebrows at Faythe and they both turned to see Castiel standing behind them, his hands clasped behind his back. He looked only at Balthazar, though Faythe thought she saw a flicker in her direction. "Ah Castiel" Balthazar smiled "pull up a chair, I was having a chat with your friend Faythe here."

"I have no time Balthazar" Castiel replied simply "I need you."

"I shall be along in a moment, allow me to give Faythe a proper goodbye. You wouldn't want me to seem rude would you?"

"Yeah feathers" in a spur of the moment Faythe found herself wanting to assure Castiel that despite their argument and disagreement over actions she was ultimately still his friend, and she reached out to put a hand on his arm as she spoke. His gaze snapped to hers immediately, a slight frown creasing his eyebrows and a minor tilt to his head. "You don't go around makin' your friends be rude just because you're in a hurry, do you?" she gave him a slight smile and a tiny nod.

After a few seconds Castiel nodded too, though from the frown on his face she was concerned that he still didn't understand what it was she was trying to tell him without words. He turned back to Balthazar. "Be quick" he said, vanishing once more. Balthazar turned back around to face Faythe again.

"As I said, you underestimate the importance you have to my brother" he said looking smug.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, you realise that right?"

"Do you really?" he gave her a look "I doubt you are that stupid Faythe."

"Are you going to explain to me or insult me?"

"Alright, if you insist on being so blind and naïve I shall let you figure it out for yourself" he sighed, giving her a look that clearly said he'd hoped she'd know what he was talking of and was quite disappointed that she didn't. "I best go find out what it is Castiel wants. I imagine this will not be the last time you see him Faythe, and I hope it is not the last time I see you. For now however, it is goodbye."

He vanished, leaving only a few fluttering bills on the counter top. Faythe smiled, at least the angel hadn't left her with the bill, and drained the last of her glass before she too vanished.


End file.
